T  H  E 

Territorial  Acquisitions 
of  the  United  States 


An    Historical    Review 

r> 

by 
EDWARD   BICKNELL 


BOSTON 

SMALL,  MAYNARD   &  COMPANY 
1899 


THE 

TERRITORIAL  ACQUISITIONS 
OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 


THE 

Territorial  Acquisitions 
of  the  United  States 

An  Historical  Review 

BY 

EDWARD    BICKNELL 


BOSTON 
SMALL,   MAYNARD   &  COMPANY 

1899 


(0 


Copyright, 
j  Maynard  &  Company 

(Incorporated) 


Press  of 
George  H.  Ellis,  Boston,  U.S.4. 


uicfori 


5" 

LJbraiy 


PREFACE 


Because  all  the  world  is  discussing  the  results 
of  the  war  of  1898)  this  historical  review^ 
which  recites  in  detail  all  the  precedents  estab- 
lished by  the  United  States  since  the  beginning 
of  its  government^  should  aid  very  greatly  the 
intelligent  comprehension  of  the  subject. 

It  is  evidently  the  author's  intention  to  avoid 
partisanship  or  controversy.  He  has  told  the 
whole  truth)  in  simple  graphic  language^  con- 
cerning every  event  that  has  occurred  which 
has  any  relation  to  the  gradual  growth  of  a 
small)  scattered  group  of  States  into  the  mag- 
nificent domain  which  is  now  the  United  States 
of  America ;  and  he  has  left  the  reader  to  his 
own  conclusions  as  to  the  propriety  and  wisdom 
of  extending  the  national  control  to  lands  beyond 
the  sea. 

W. 


CONTENTS 

Chapter  I.     The  Northwestern    Territory. 

1787 Page          3 

Extent  of  the  thirteen  original  States  —  The 
Northwestern  Territory  the  first  national  domain 
—  Organized  before  the  adoption  of  the  Constitu- 
tion —  An  additional  bond  of  union  and  an  incen- 
tive to  a  needed  national  feeling  —  Its  organization 
the  foundation  of  our  system  of  territorial  gov- 
ernment —  Slavery  within  it  forbidden,  but  tacitly 
permitted  south  of  the  Ohio  —  To  be  held  under 
territorial  government  only  temporarily — The 
same  theory  in  regard  to  all  the  territories  until 
1898. 

Chapter  II.     Louisiana.      1802.     .     Page        n 

First  acquisition  of  foreign  land  —  The  Louisiana 
Purchase  —  The  region  explored  and  occupied 
first  by  the  French  —  La  Salle  —  Ceded  to  Spain 
in  compensation  for  land  lost  by  her  in  aiding 
France  —  Early  quarrels  between  the  United 
States  and  Spain  —  Navigation  of  the  Mississippi 
in  question  —  Its  importance  to  the  Western 
country  —  The  treaty  with  Spain  under  Wash- 
ington's administration  —  Difficulties  created  by 
Spain  in  John  Adams's  administration  —  Spain's 
agreement  to  restore  Louisiana  to  France  — 
French  possession  a  political  and  commercial 
danger  to  the  United  States. 

Chapter  III.     Louisiana  (concluded)     Page        21 
Jefferson's  position  —  Monroe  and  Livingston  ex- 
ceed their  authority  and  grasp  the  great  oppor- 
tunity—  Treaty   made   selling    Louisiana    to    the 
United  States  —  Its  further  provision  that  States 


CONTENTS 

should  in  time  be  formed  from  the  territory  ceded 

—  The  opposition  of  the  Federalist!  —  Their  alle- 
gations at  to  the  incompatibility  of  the  population 
with  our  institutions  and  the  unconstitutional^ 
of  the  annexation-— The  treaty  ratified,  however, 
with  little  effective  opposition  —  Prophecies  of  ills 
to  fellow  not  fulfilled  — No  especial  benefit  to  the 
South  more  than  to  the  North  —  Free  States  at 
wett  as  slave  States  formed  within  the  territory — 
The  Constitution  stretched,  but  not  amended  — 
First  precedent  as  to  the  power  of  annexation 
established — Consent  of  people  not  deemed  neces- 
sary, another  precedent. 

Chapter  IV.     Florida.     1819    .     .     Page       31 

Owned  by  Spain  — Ceded  to  England  and  then 
restored  to  Spain  — West  Florida  "annexed"  to 
the  Union—  Another  step  in  the  development  of 
the  power  of  the  national  government — Jack- 
son's invasion  in  1814 — Our  possession  in  1818 

—  Troubles  with  the  Seminoles — Jackson's  sec- 
ond invasion— The  whole  territory  finally  bought 
by  the  United  States  under  a  species  of  duress — 
Boundary  line  between  Mexico  (Spanish)  and  the 
United  States  fixed  at  same  time  —  Little  question 
as  to  the  constitutional  power  to  acquire  Florida  — 
The  Louisiana  precedent  strengthened  —  Louisiana 
and  Florida  a  benefit  to  the  whole  Union. 

Chapter  V.     Oregon.     1 846      .     ,     Page      40 

Acquired  through  discovery  and  by  occupation — 
The  fur  trade — Captain  Gray  and  the  Colum- 
bia— Jefferson's  encouragement  —  Lewis  and 
Clark's  expedition— John  Jacob  Astor's  enter- 
prise—Dispute with  England —The  "Oregon 
Question  "in  politics  —  "Fifty-four  forty  or 
fight "  —  Convention  with  England  concluded — 
Boundary  fixed  by  compromise. 

viii 


CONTENTS 

Chapter  VI.     Texas.      1845       .     .     Page        50 

Slavery  potent  in  the  acquisition  of  territory  from 
Mexico  —  Early  occupation  by  the  Spanish  of 
what  is  now  our  Southwest  —  Less  conspicuous  in 
Texas  —  Contraband  trade  —  Dissatisfaction  in  the 
United  States  with  the  boundary  line  fixed  in 
1819  —  Henry  Clay's  opposition. 

Chapter  VII.     Texas  (concluded)   .     Page        56 

Mexican  independence  gained  —  Stephen  F. 
Austin  —  Early  settlers  of  Texas  —  Texas  joined 
in  one  Mexican  State  with  Coahuila  —  Injustice 
of  the  Mexican  authorities  —  Texas  American  in 
its  people  and  habits  of  thought  —  Two  attempts 
on  the  part  of  the  United  States  to  buy  Texas 
from  Mexico  —  Texas  petitions  the  Mexican  gov- 
ernment to  be  allowed  to  become  a  separate 
Mexican  State  —  Revolts  from  Mexico  —  Sam 
Houston's  victory  —  Texas  independent  —  Folk's 
election  —  Annexed  to  the  United  States  by  joint 
resolution  —  Annexation  not  to  be  condemned  per 
M,  but  because  of  manner  and  time  —  Clay's  views. 

Chapter    VIII.      The    Mexican     Cessions. 

1848;   1853 Page       67 

The  Mexican  War  —  Apparently  a  war  of  con- 
quest—  Santa  Anna  —  The  Wilmot  Proviso  — 
Scott's  victory — A  large  amount  of  territory 
ceded  to  the  United  States  by  the  Treaty  of 
Peace,  and  compensation  given  to  Mexico  — 
States  to  be  formed  from  the  ceded  territory  — 
The  party  responsible  for  the  war  defeated  at  the 
next  national  election  —  The  Gadsden  purchase 
—  Last  acquisition  of  contiguous  territory  by  the 
United  States  —  Results  of  the  Mexican  War  — 
Beginning  of  the  end  of  slavery  —  Texas  the  last 
slave  State  admitted  to  the  Union. 


CONTENTS 

Chapter  IX.     Alaska.      1867      .     .     Page       75 

Its  purchase  from  Russia — Commercial  reasons 
govern  the  annexation  —  Not  contiguous  to  the 
United  States  —  A  new  precedent  established  — 
Consent  of  its  people  dispensed  with  as  in  previous 
cases  except  Texas  —  Expectation  that  it  would 
remain  under  permanent  territorial  government  — 
Such  government  practically  that  of  a  colony  or 
province  —  Another  precedent  thus  established  — 
The  discovery  and  occupation  by  Russia  —  Amer- 
ican interests  —  Fisheries  —  Mineral  wealth  — 
Ceded  to  the  United  States  —  No  opposition  to 
the  treaty  —  Treaty  rights  of  civilized  inhabitants 

—  Acquisitions    of  to-day  different    in   character 
from  any  before. 

Chapter  X.     Hawaii.      1898       .     .     Page       83 

Annexation  of  Hawaii  justified  on  naval  grounds 
or  to  protect  American  interests  paramount  in  the 
islands  —  Its  people  —  Early  history  —  The 
Kamehameha  dynasty  —  Treaty  with  the  United 
States  in  1874 — American  capital  invested  in 
the  islands  and  the  American  colony  there  — 
Revolution  of  1887  —  Suffrage  extended  to  aliens 

—  Accession  of  Liliuokalani  —  Schemes  for  annex- 
ation —  Sympathy  of  the  United  States  minister 
with  the  movement. 

Chapter  XI.  Hawaii  (concluded)  .  Page  92 
Queen  proposes  a  new  constitution  —  Committee 
of  Safety  formed  —  Monarchical  system  of  govern- 
ment abrogated  and  queen  deposed  —  Annexation 
to  the  United  States  proposed  —  Action  of  United 
States  marines  —  Treaty  of  annexation  laid  before 
the  Senate  by  President  Harrison  —  Withdrawn 
by  President  Cleveland  —  His  action  in  the  matter 

—  The   Republic   of  Hawaii  proclaimed  —  An- 


CONTENTS 

other  treaty  of  annexation  proposed  by  President 
McKinley  —  Effect  of  our  war  with  Spain  upon 
annexation  —  A  new  thought  —  Annexation 
finally  accomplished  by  joint  resolution  —  Course 
of  our  government  not  to  be  viewed  with  com- 
placency, whatever  the  results. 

Chapter  XII.     Conclusion      .     .     .     Page      100 

The  recent  acquisitions  in  the  West  Indies  and 
the  East  —  Result  of  a  review  of  our  past  acquisi- 
tions: precedents  made  allowing  our  government 
to  extend  the  boundaries  of  the  country  wherever 
it  deems  it  proper  so  to  do  —  The  story  not  all 
creditable  —  Action  through  ignorance  of  facts  at 
the  time  —  Precedents  allowing  annexation  un- 
questionably having  been  made,  shall  we  limit  our 
power  ?  —  The  government  of  territories  wherever 
situated  or  however  peopled  a  trust  which  cannot 
be  evaded. 

Appendix    .      .     v    .     .      •     .     •     Page     1 06 


THE 

TERRITORIAL  ACQUISITIONS 
OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE    NORTHWESTERN 
TERRITORY. 

WHEN  England  recognised  the  indepen- 
dence of  the  United  States  of  America,  and 
treated  them  as  u  free,  sovereign,  and  inde- 
pendent States,"  those  States  occupied  a  terri- 
tory extending,  roughly  speaking,  from  the 
Great  Lakes  at  the  north  to  the  3ist  parallel 
of  north  latitude,  or  about  fifty  miles  north 
of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  at  the  south;  and 
from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Mississippi.  All 
the  rest  of  the  country  embraced  in  the 
United  States  of  to-day  south  of  British 
Columbia  was  then  practically  Spanish  terri- 
tory, mostly  unexplored  and  unknown.  To- 
day, in  addition  to  Alaska  and  Hawaii  and 
the  more  recent  possessions,  the  United 
States  of  America  extends  quite  to  the  Gulf 
of  Mexico  on  the  south,  and  to  the  Pacific 
on  the  west ;  and  every  foot  of  the  increase 
of  territory,  except  the  Oregon  country  and 
Texas,  has  been  gained  through  a  cession 
from  some  foreign  power,  with  no  great 
amount  of  inquiry  as  to  the  consent  of  the 
inhabitants  of  the  territory  thus  acquired. 


TERRITORIAL  ACQUISITIONS 

The  United  States  began  to  acquire  na- 
tional territory  of  its  own,  as  distinct  from 
the  ownership  of  the  individual  States,  very 
early  in  its  career,  by  absorbing  the  North- 
western Territory,  so  called.  Before  the 
Constitution  was  adopted  and  while  the 
States  were  bound  together  by  the  Confed- 
eration, under  which  they  fought  out  the 
Revolutionary  War,  but  which  was  so  weak 
as  barely  to  survive  it,  the  beginning  of  a 
national  domain  was  made.  The  settled 
portions  of  the^States  were,  broadly  speaking, 
along  the  Atlantic  east  of  the  Alleghanies ; 
and  between  these  portions  of  the  States  and 
the  Mississippi  there  was  a  comparatively 
large  and  certainly  rich  country,  which  was 
claimed  by  several  of  the  States. 

The  charters  under  which  some  of  the 
Colonies,  subsequently  States,  claimed  their 
land,  carried  their  respective  boundaries  at 
least  to  the  Mississippi,  so  far  as  the  Eng- 
lish title  extended ;  but  owing  to  careless- 
ness or  lack  of  geographical  knowledge 
when  the  charters  were  made,  and  the  little 
comparative  value  of  the  unsettled  wilderness, 
there  were  a  duplication  of  grants  and  a 
confusion  about  them  which  made  the  titles 
of  the  western  portions,  still  unsettled,  ob- 


NORTHWESTERN  TERRITORY 

scure,  doubtful,  and  conflicting.  These 
western  lands  were  constant  sources  of 
irritation,  and  bade  fair  to  involve  the  new 
nation  in  disastrous  domestic  difficulties. 
They  also  worked  an  injustice  toward  such 
States  as  had  no  such  western  lands.  The 
States  having  land  outside  of  their  own 
proper  domains  had  property  from  which  to 
reimburse  themselves  for  the  losses  incurred 
in  gaining  independence,  while  the  other 
States  had  no  such  resources ;  and  yet  all 
had  borne,  in  a  greater  or  less  degree,  the 
pains,  hardships,  and  losses  of  the  struggle. 

To  end  the  possibility  of  domestic  dissen- 
sions arising  out  of  conflicting  claims,  and 
especially  to  give  the  Confederation  some 
property  from  which  to  pay  its  running  ex- 
penses and  the  debts  incurred  in  the  war 
waged  for  the  benefit  of  all,  the  various 
States  claiming  such  lands,  at  different  times, 
ceded  to  the  United  States  these  western 
lands ;  and  so  in  this  way  the  national  gov- 
ernment became  a  land-owner.  The  land 
north  of  the  Ohio,  known  as  the  North- 
western Territory  and  comprising  the  pres- 
ent States  of  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois,  Wis- 
consin, Michigan,  and  part  of  Minnesota, 
came  into  the  hands  of  the  United  States 


TERRITORIAL  ACQUISITIONS 

between  1780  and  1786.  The  land  south 
of  the  Ohio  was  not  ceded  to  the  United 
States  until  later;  but  by  1802  the  govern- 
ment held  what  is  now  Mississippi  and  Ala- 
bama (except  a  strip  across  the  southern  part 
of  them  owned  by  Spain)  as  a  territory,  while 
Kentucky  and  Tennessee,  which  had  been 
ceded  by  Virginia  and  North  Carolina,  had 
been  admitted  as  States. 

No  more  important  domestic  occurrence 
marked  our  early  history  than  the  cession  to 
the  United  States  of  the  land  comprising  the 
Northwestern  Territory.  The  Union  was  at 
that  time  in  the  greatest  danger  of  falling  to 
pieces.  The  Confederation  had  served  to 
carry  the  States  through  the  war.  The  com- 
mon cause  and  common  danger  had  acted  to 
hold  them  together ;  but,  when  peace  came, 
the  strain  seemed  almost  too  much  for  the 
weak  bonds  of  confederation.  Local  jeal- 
ousies, quarrels  about  territory,  commercial 
conflicts  between  the  States,  the  poverty  and 
confusion  occasioned  by  war,  and  the  lack 
of  a  national  feeling  shown  through  the  war 
itself, —  all  combined  to  give  color  to  the 
prophecy  of  Europeans,  that  the  Union 
must  soon  dissolve  through  internal  dissen- 
sions. Moreover,  Congress  was  obliged 


NORTHWESTERN  TERRITORY 

continually  to  press  the  States  for  money,  to 
remind  them  of  their  obligations.  There 
was  not  enough  of  active  honesty  and  patriot- 
ism left  after  the  war  to  urge  a  prompt  per- 
formance of  their  duties  to  the  Union,  how- 
ever careful  the  States  might  be  to  look  out 
for  their  own  immediate  and  individual  inter- 
ests. The  people  were  apt  to  think  first  of 
their  respective  States,  not  of  the  Union. 
They  had  struggled  continuously  for  many 
years,  had  been  through  an  eight  years'  war, 
with  all  the  anxieties  and  deprivations  which 
that  implies ;  and  it  needed  a  very  sturdy 
patriotism  and  a  very  deep-rooted  virtue, 
widely  diffused,  to  keep  up  the  struggle  after 
the  outside  pressure  was  removed.  The 
country  was  in  the  same  state  of  weakness, 
with  the  same  low  vitality,  in  which  a  man 
finds  himself  after  a  high  fever.  But  when 
the  Union,  by  gaining  this  valuable  tract  of 
territory,  possessed  a  national  domain, —  a 
territory  which,  thrown  open  to  immigration, 
would  pay  the  cost  of  the  entire  war, —  less 
than  ever  would  it  need  to  call  upon  the 
States  for  money.  It  possessed  something 
in  which  every  State  had  an  interest,  some- 
thing which  nourished  that  national  feeling 
and  pride  so  sorely  needed. 


TERRITORIAL  ACQUISITIONS 

It  was  a  territory  which  meant  very  much 
to  the  people  of  the  United  States.  It  was 
within  it  that  France  had  tried  to  gain  a  foot- 
hold, and,  by  drawing  a  chain  of  settlements 
and  fortified  posts  around  the  English  Colo- 
nies, to  stifle  them  or  drive  them  into  the 
sea.  As  the  Colonies  grew  in  population, 
and  there  were  fewer  openings  at  home  for 
the  adventurous  and  colonising  spirit  of  our 
fathers,  it  was  to  this  territory  along  the 
Ohio  and  down  the  Mississippi  that  they 
turned  their  eyes  and  gave  their  thoughts. 
It  was  the  efforts  made  for  its  possession  by 
the  French  and  English  which  began  the  last 
and  decisive  French  war  in  this  country.  It 
was  to  gain  a  clear  title  to  it  that  the  Colonies 
had  contributed  their  blood  and  their  treas- 
ure, and  the  victory  gained  at  the  fall  of 
New  France  was  theirs  as  well  as  England's. 
And  it  was  this  same  Northwestern  Territory 
which  the  skill  and  bravery  of  George  Rogers 
Clark  and  his  company  had  conquered  in  the 
Revolutionary  War  after  the  British  had 
taken  possession,  and  which  was  saved  to 
us  when  the  treaty  of  peace  was  made  in 
1783  only  by  skilful  diplomacy. 

So  when  all  this  Northwestern  Territory, 
the  land  north  of  the  Ohio,  became  a 


NORTHWESTERN  TERRITORY 

national  domain,  the  new  nation  had  some- 
thing in  which  the  people  had  an  interest 
outside  of  their  own  particular  States.  It 
was  one  bond  of  union  at  a  time  when  the 
old  bonds  were  loosening.  The  famous 
Ordinance  of  1787,  by  which  this  territory 
was  organised  and  governed,  formed  the 
model  for  governing  the  territories  afterward 
acquired.  It  was  the  beginning,  and  it  laid 
the  foundation  for  our  system  of  territorial 
government.  In  the  light  of  after  events, 
perhaps  the  most  important  provision  in  the 
ordinance  was  the  prohibition  of  slavery 
within  the  territory.  Thus  it  came  about 
that  the  States  formed  within  that  section  of 
our  country  were  free  States  at  their  begin- 
ning. 

The  Constitution  went  into  effect  in  1789, 
and  our  government  as  it  is  to-day  came  into 
being.  To  the  Union  under  its  new  estab- 
lishment Georgia  and  North  Carolina  ceded 
their  western  lands,  and  in  framing  measures 
for  the  government  of  these  new  territories 
the  main  provisions  of  the  Ordinance  of 
1787  were  followed,  except  that  slavery  was 
not  forbidden. 

Up  to  this  time  the  United  States  possessed 
territory  only  which  had  been  surrendered  to 


TERRITORIAL  ACQUISITIONS 

it  by  the  States.  The  national  domain  was 
common  property  contributed  by  the  States 
themselves,  which  did  not  add  to  the  area 
of  the  United  States  taken  as  a  whole. 
This  land,  surrendered  to  the  United  States, 
plainly  was  to  be  held  under  territorial  gov- 
ernment only  until  it  developed  sufficiently 
to  be  fit  for  local  State  government.  All  the 
acts  of  Congress  and  every  measure  relating 
to  it  show  this.  Every  other  acquisition 
since  has  been  of  foreign  territory ;  but,  like 
the  North-western  Territory,  these  acquisi- 
tions, down  to  that  of  Alaska,  have  been 
domains  contiguous  to  the  States  then  exist- 
ing, and  fitted  by  the  population,  which 
would  naturally  flow  into  them,  to  become 
like  the  older  States  in  their  people  and 
habits  of  government  and  thought.  It  was 
the  natural  expectation  and  intention  of  our 
people,  stipulated  in  all  the  treaties  of  an- 
nexation until  that  of  Alaska,  that  these  dis- 
tricts temporarily  held  under  territorial  gov- 
ernment should  eventually  become  States. 
That  idea  has  been  connected  with  all  our 
acquisitions  down  to  the  time  of  the  purchase 
of  Alaska. 


CHAPTER   II. 
LOUISIANA. 

WHEN  the  United  States  under  its  new 
form  of  government  was  fairly  started,  it 
began  to  grow  in  territory  as  well  as  in  other 
wealth.  It  then  began  to  acquire  foreign 
land.  The  question  of  the  constitutionality 
of  such  acquisitions  was  raised  at  the  outset ; 
but  the  first  annexation  was  made  notwith- 
standing, and  the  validity  of  the  act  has  never 
been  overruled. 

The  purchase  of  Louisiana,  our  first  acqui- 
sition of  foreign  territory,  grew  out  of  the 
situation  of  the  States,  and  of  the  necessity 
for  a  seaport  for  the  Northwestern  Territory 
and  the  Mississippi  Territory  and  the  States 
already  formed  in  that  section  of  the  country. 
These  reasons,  and  the  situation  of  the  polit- 
ical parties  at  that  time,  prevented  any  effec- 
tive opposition  to  the  transaction. 

Louisiana  was  the  name  given  by  the 
French  to  the  region  drained  by  the  Mis- 
sissippi and  its  tributaries.  The  territory 
embraced  extended  from  the  Alleghanies  to 
the  Rocky  Mountains.  France  claimed  all 
of  it  by  a  title  of  discovery  and  occupation, 


TERRITORIAL  ACQUISITIONS 

alleging  the  exploration  of  the  Mississippi  to 
its  mouth,  and  the  French  settlements  made 
from  New  Orleans  to  Canada.  The  prior 
discovery  of  De  Soto  had  passed  out  of 
mind,  or  at  any  rate  had  not  been  followed 
by  occupation,  when  La  Salle,  the  French- 
man, and  one  of  the  greatest  of  the  early 
heroes  of  this  country,  with  a  perseverance 
and  endurance  never  excelled,  after  repeated 
trials,  thwarted  by  temporary  failure  and  by 
embarrassments  of  every  kind,  sailed  along 
the  Great  Lakes,  penetrated  the  wilderness  to 
the  Illinois  River,  then  journeyed  down  that 
river  to  the  Mississippi,  and  down  the  Mis- 
sissippi to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  His  mag- 
nificent scheme  of  military  and  trading  posts 
along  the  great  waterway,  of  alliances  with 
the  Indians,  of  forming  a  power  which 
would  check  the  Spanish  in  an  advance  from 
Mexico,  and  bind  the  English  to  their  posts 
east  of  the  Alleghanies,  he  did  not  live  to 
put  in  practice  himself;  and,  fortunately  for 
England  and  ourselves,  it  was  only  entered 
upon  when  the  great  struggle  between 
France  and  England  for  the  possession  of 
this  country  began.  After  seventy- four 
years  of  almost  continual  warfare  the  French 
were  overcome. 


LOUISIANA 

When  the  end  came,  and  France  was 
obliged  to  strip  herself  of  her  American 
possessions,  she  released  to  England,  in 
addition  to  Canada,  the  country  east  of  the 
Mississippi  down  to  the  Spanish  possession 
of  Florida.  The  vast  domain  west  of  the 
Mississippi  she  gave  to  Spain  to  repay  that 
power  for  what  it  had  lost  in  the  fight ; 
for,  in  the  last  years  of  the  struggle,  Spain 
had  come  to  the  aid  of  France,  and  had  been 
bereft  of  some  of  her  own  territory  as  well. 

So  Spain  succeeded  to  the  French  title  to 
Louisiana,  which  name  was  now  confined 
to  the  land  west  of  the  river.  A  few  Span- 
ish settlements  sprang  up  in  this  region,  but 
there  was  no  such  vigour  in  Spanish  colo- 
nising as  to  leave  any  lasting  impression. 
The  change  was  not  acceptable  to  the 
citizens  of  New  Orleans,  who  were  French 
in  blood  and  remained  so  in  sympathy. 

Meanwhile  the  English  Colonies  grew 
apace.  Settlers  began  to  penetrate  in  in- 
creasing numbers  through  the  Alleghanies 
into  the  fertile  country  of  the  Ohio  and  the 
northwest.  Kentucky  became  settled  in  a 
measure.  Tennessee  began  to  upbuild.  The 
United  States  came  into  being ;  and  the  new 
nation,  with  all  the  energy  of  youth,  was 


TERRITORIAL  ACQUISITIONS 

stretching  toward  the  Mississippi,  and  look- 
ing longingly  down  the  river  to  the  Gulf. 
Spain,  in  the  spirit  of  monopoly,  common 
enough  in  that  age,  or  fearing  for  her  other 
possessions  along  the  Gulf,  at  first  tried  to 
restrict  the  navigation  of  the  Mississippi  to 
her  own  people,  while  the  whole  of  the 
United  States  along  the  Mississippi  and  Ohio 
felt  shut  in  without  the  outlet  which  nature 
had  put  at  its  feet.  The  free  navigation  of 
the  Mississippi  was  a  burning  question  to 
citizens  of  Ohio  and  Kentucky  and  the  then 
western  part  of  our  country.  While  Spain 
held  New  Orleans,  there  was  bound  to  be 
trouble  unless  restrictions  on  the  commerce 
of  the  river  were  removed.  For  Spain  then 
held  the  territory  on  both  sides  of  the  river, 
and  the  United  States  nowhere  touched  the 
Gulf;  Florida,  which  in  those  days  extended 
from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Mississippi,  having 
been  returned  to  Spanish  authority  after  only 
a  short  English  possession. 

In  the  latter  days  of  the  Confederation 
and  in  the  early  days  of  our  republic,  Spain 
was  an  uncomfortable  neighbour ;  and  Wash- 
ington's administration  continued  to  be  full 
of  difficulties  with  her  over  the  northern 
boundary  of  Florida  and  the  navigation  of 

14 


LOUISIANA 

the  Mississippi.  She  refused  to  allow  the 
free  navigation  of  the  river  until  the  boun- 
dary dispute  was  settled.  The  people  of  our 
then  western  section  were  not  slow  in  ex- 
pressing their  feelings  upon  the  situation. 
At  various  times  Spain  tried  to  foment  dis- 
sensions between  Kentucky  and  Tennessee 
and  the  rest  of  the  Union  ;  but,  although 
she  failed  to  bring  about  a  separation,  her 
acts  drove  the  western  settlers  to  the  Presi- 
dent and  Congress  with  passionate  remon- 
strances. The  opinion  was  openly  expressed 
that  there  was  opposition  between  the  east- 
ern and  western  parts  of  the  country,  and 
that  the  attempts  of  our  government  to  open 
the  river  had  been  feeble  and  insincere  ;  and 
there  were  some  grounds  upon  which  to  base 
such  an  opinion.  The  western  men  claimed 
as  a  merit  that  they  had  so  long  abstained 
from  using  the  means  they  possessed  for  the 
assertion  of  u  a  natural  and  inalienable  right." 
Such  demonstrations  of  feeling  seemed  sure 
to  bring  us  into  hostilities  with  Spain,  if  they 
did  not  kindle  difficulties  among  ourselves; 
and  Spain's  alliance  with  England  made  her 
very  positive  and  arrogant  in  tone.  But  at 
length,  in  1795,  Washington's  administra- 
tion managed  to  conclude  a  treaty  with  Spain 


TERRITORIAL  ACQUISITIONS 

which  nominally  settled  the  boundary  dis- 
pute and  threw  open  the  Mississippi  to  free 
navigation,  and  also  gave  the  people  of  the 
United  States  the  privilege  of  depositing  mer- 
chandise for  transshipment  in  New  Orleans, 
or  some  other  designated  port  on  the  river 
near  there,  free  of  duty.  While  Spain  was 
not  very  prompt  in  observing  the  boundaries 
laid  down  in  this  treaty,  the  Mississippi 
problem  was  settled  for  the  time  being. 
After  that  the  relations  of  the  United  States 
with  Spain  were  fairly  friendly,  except  once 
when,  in  John  Adams's  administration,  the 
right  of  deposit  was  interdicted.  The  Presi- 
dent had  determined  to  compel  Spain  to  open 
a  depot  for  American  trade  in  accordance 
with  the  treaty,  when  the  right  of  deposit 
was  restored,  whereupon  everything  was 
again  serene.  This  state  of  things  con- 
tinued till  1802. 

In  that  year  it  became  known  that  in 
1800  France  had  made  a  secret  treaty  with 
Spain  under  which  Louisiana  was  to  be  re- 
stored to  France  upon  certain  conditions 
since  fulfilled.  Napoleon  was  then  Consul, 
and,  with  the  rest  of  his  contemporaries, 
shared  an  ambition  for  distant  possessions, 
for  colonies  whose  trade  he  might  monopo- 
16 


LOUISIANA 

lise.  Egypt  was,  even  then,  a  rather  un- 
certain possession.  Louisiana,  with  its  vast 
extent  and  its  natural  resources,  having 
formerly  belonged  to  France,  the  pride  of 
France  would  be  gratified  by  its  return.  It 
would  give  Napoleon  a  foothold  in  America, 
the  control,  as  he  believed  and  intended,  of 
the  commerce  of  the  Great  River,  with  pos- 
sibilities in  the  future  hardly  to  be  realised. 

Napoleon  had  no  trouble  in  bringing  Spain 
to  his  wishes.  He  had  become  too  strong 
to  have  difficulties  raised  by  that  country, 
and  so  the  treaty  was  made.  In  1802, 
having  fulfilled  his  part  of  the  agreement, 
Napoleon  got  ready  to  take  possession  of  his 
American  acquisitions.  He  assembled  his 
vessels  and  troops,  and  made  some  negotia- 
tions to  obtain  Florida  also :  then  he  had  to 
wait  awhile.  The  indiscretion  of  the  Span- 
ish officials  allowed  the  particulars  of  these 
negotiations  to  reach  the  English  ambassador, 
whereupon  British  jealousy  at  once  took 
alarm  and  raised  a  mass  of  obstacles.  So, 
in  1803,  he  found  himself  still  without 
possession  of  Louisiana  and  on  the  eve  of 
war  with  Great  Britain.  In  the  event 
of  war  at  that  time  Louisiana  was  vulner- 
able. To  say  nothing  of  what  the  United 

17 


TERRITORIAL  ACQUISITIONS 

States  might  be  tempted  to  undertake,  Eng- 
land would  surely  strike  there;  for  not  a 
French  soldier  was  on  American  soil,  and 
hardly  one  could  be  spared  from  other 
quarters.  A  message  from  George  III.  to 
his  Parliament,  showing  preparations  for  war, 
dispelled  all  the  colonial  dreams  of  the  First 
Consul.  It  became  then  his  object  to  dis- 
pose of  Louisiana  to  the  best  advantage. 
Selling  it  to  the  United  States  would  help 
him  to  some  needed  money  and  do  an  ill 
turn  to  England.  It  not  only  would  make 
the  United  States  a  little  more  friendly,  per- 
haps, but  would  make  it  a  power  which 
might  threaten  England's  American  posses- 
sions, and,  as  he  said,  a  maritime  rival  which 
would  sooner  or  later  humble  England's 
pride. 

The  Consul  very  easily  came  to  arrange- 
ments with  the  United  States.  Much  as 
its  people  disliked  to  have  Spain  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Mississippi,  they  felt  that  it 
would  be  worse  to  have  a  strong  power  like 
France  there,  especially  in  view  of  what 
seemed  to  be  her  proposed  policy.  French 
forces  sent  to  Hayti  were  believed  by  many 
to  be  destined  ultimately  for  Louisiana,  to 
maintain  French  dominion  supreme  there 

18 


LOUISIANA 

and  extend  it  if  possible.  In  1802,  acting 
under  French  influence,  Spain  again  closed 
New  Orleans  as  a  place  of  deposit.  This 
virtually  closed  the  Mississippi  to  the  people 
of  the  United  States,  and  was  a  sample  of 
what  might  be  expected  when  Napoleon 
should  get  possession. 

When  this  action  of  Spain  became  known, 
and  the  people  of  Kentucky  and  of  the 
western  States  and  territories  began  to  feel 
the  results  of  this  unfriendly  policy,  and 
trade  down  the  river  ceased,  the  pressure 
upon  the  administration  to  take  aggressive 
measures  became  almost  too  strong  to  be 
withstood.  The  Federalists  taunted  Jeffer- 
son with  cowardice.  It  seemed  difficult  for 
them  to  find  words  to  express  their  disgust  at 
his  lack  of  action.  Perhaps  they  took  this 
attitude  for  political  reasons,  hoping  to  gain 
western  support ;  but  we  should  prefer  to 
believe  an  honest  patriotism  moved  them. 
The  Mississippi  difficulty  was  no  new  thing, 
as  we  have  seen.  Washington  had  only 
averted  a  possible  secession  of  the  western 
States,  or  war  with  Spain,  by  the  treaty  of 
1795,  and  John  Adams  stopped  at  force 
only  because  Spain  yielded.  So  the  Federal- 
ists, not  having  now  the  responsibility  of  the 


TERRITORIAL  ACQUISITIONS 

government  on  their  shoulders,  might  well 
urge  the  most  vigourous  measures.  Besides, 
party  feeling  was  high  and  unreasonable ;  and 
many  a  Federalist  honestly  believed  that 
Jefferson  and  his  party  were  under  French 
influence  and  ready  to  cater  to  Napoleon's 
wishes.  But  war  did  not  coincide  with 
Jefferson's  policy.  Yet,  "  always  a  patriot 
and  always  intensely  partisan,"  as  he  was, 
he  was  fully  sensible  of  the  fact  that  the 
presence  of  the  French  in  New  Orleans  was 
perilous  to  his  country  as  well  as  to  his 
party.  It  was  the  popular  sympathy  with 
the  French  republic,  and  the  bitter  aversion 
to  England,  which  was  one  factor  in  the 
overthrow  of  the  Federalists,  who  were 
looked  upon  by  many  as  being  too  fond  of 
aristocratic  and  even  monarchical  ideas.  If 
France  held  New  Orleans,  there  was  every 
reason  to  believe  that  she  soon  would  be  an 
object  of  bitter  detestation,  and  the  English 
party  here  would  be  in  the  ascendant.  That, 
apparently,  meant  ruin  to  Jefferson's  party. 
The  country  had  not  yet  become  emanci- 
pated from  European  politics,  and  party 
policies  here  turned  very  much  upon  the 
question  of  favouring  England  or  France. 


CHAPTER    III. 
LOUISIANA  (CONCLUDED). 

BUT  beyond  merely  a  question  of  party 
success  or  failure  there  was  great  danger  in 
the  proposed  French  occupation.  Jefferson 
writes  as  follows  to  Livingston,  our  minister 
to  France :  "  The  cession  of  Louisiana  .  .  . 
by  Spain  to  France  works  most  sorely  on 
the  United  States.  ...  It  completely  reverses 
all  the  political  relations  of  the  United  States, 
and  will  form  a  new  epoch  in  our  political 
course."  And  he  goes  on  to  speak  of  France 
as  our  natural  friend,  u  as  one  with  which 
we  could  never  have  an  occasion  of  differ- 
ence. Her  growth,  therefore,"  he  writes, 
"  we  viewed  as  our  own,  her  misfortunes 
ours.  There  is  on  the  globe  one  single  spot, 
the  possessor  of  which  is  our  natural  and 
habitual  enemy.  It  is  New  Orleans,  through 
which  the  produce  of  three-eighths  of  our 
territory  must  pass  to  market ;  and  from 
its  fertility  it  will  erelong  yield  more  than 
half  of  our  whole  produce,  and  contain  more 
than  half  of  our  inhabitants.  France,  placing 
herself  in  that  door,  assumes  to  us  the  atti- 
tude of  defiance.  Spain  might  have  retained 


TERRITORIAL  ACQUISITIONS 

it  quietly  for  years.  Her  pacific  dispositions, 
her  feeble  state,  would  induce  her  to  increase 
our  facilities  there,  so  that  her  possession  of 
the  place  would  be  hardly  felt  by  us ;  and  it 
would  not,  perhaps,  be  very  long  before 
some  circumstances  might  arise  which  would 
make  the  cession  of  it  to  us  as  the  price  of 
something  of  more  worth  to  her.  Not  so 
can  it  ever  be  in  the  hands  of  France.  The 
impetuosity  of  her  temper,  the  energy  and 
restlessness  of  her  character,  placed  in  a 
point  of  eternal  friction  with  us  and  our 
character,  which,  though  quiet  and  loving 
peace  and  the  pursuit  of  wealth,  is  high- 
minded,  despising  wealth  in  competition 
with  insult  or  injury,  enterprising  and  ener- 
getic as  any  nation  on  earth, —  these  circum- 
stances render  it  impossible  that  France  and 
the  United  States  can  continue  long  friends 
when  they  meet  in  so  irritable  a  position." 
And,  certainly,  it  appeared  very  ominous  to 
peace  when  Spain,  plainly  under  French  in- 
fluence, interdicted  the  right  of  deposit  at 
New  Orleans.  It  looked  very  much  as  if 
Napoleon  was  trying  to  get  possession  of 
Louisiana  unfettered  by  any  question  of  treaty 
obligations  entered  into  by  Spain,  and  that  he 
did  not  propose  to  succeed  to  a  condition  of 
affairs  brought  into  being  by  such  a  treaty. 


LOUISIANA 

In  addition  to  all  these  objections  there 
was  another,  and  a  most  grave  one,  to  the 
possession  or  acquisition  of  Louisiana  by 
France.  It  meant  almost  certainly  the  con- 
quest of  that  province  by  England.  With 
England  north  of  the  United  States,  and  on 
its  west,  and  in  control  of  the  Mississippi, 
the  United  States  would  be  forced  into  an 
alliance  with  her  or  else  into  a  bitter  strug- 
gle, the  end  of  which  would  be  impossible  to 
foresee.  So  it  appeared  that  the  only  way  out 
of  the  difficulty  was  for  the  United  States  to 
possess  Louisiana  for  herself. 

Accordingly,  when  Jefferson  learned  of  the 
French  treaty  with  Spain,  and  was  informed 
of  the  closing  of  New  Orleans  to  our  mer- 
chants, aware,  too,  of  the  gathering  war- 
clouds  in  Europe,  he  saw  his  opportunity. 
He  made  Livingston,  who  was  already  on 
the  ground,  and  James  Monroe,  ministers 
plenipotentiary  to  purchase  the  Island  of 
New  Orleans,  as  the  district  around  that  city 
was  called.  At  a  little  earlier  date,  when 
Livingston  had  presented  a  memorial  respect- 
ing the  wishes  of  the  United  States  as  to  the 
navigation  of  the  Mississippi  and  the  acquisi- 
tion of  New  Orleans,  Napoleon  had  paid 
little  attention  to  his  representations  and 
23 


TERRITORIAL  ACQUISITIONS 

offers.  It  was  at  that  time  that  he  had  his 
own  purposes  to  serve,  and  Louisiana  and 
its  trade  were  wanted  for  France.  When, 
however,  as  we  have  seen,  war  with  England 
became  imminent,  his  purposes  changed. 
Instead  of  accepting  an  offer  to  buy  New 
Orleans  or  to  arrange  a  treaty  allowing  us 
the  privileges  held  under  Spanish  agreement, 
he  expressed  a  desire  to  sell  the  whole  of 
Louisiana.  Monroe  had  now  arrived  in 
Paris,  and  no  time  was  lost  in  coming  to 
terms.  Although  the  envoys  had  no  author- 
ity to  buy  more  than  New  Orleans,  they  per- 
ceived the  benefit  which  the  acquisition 
of  the  whole  of  Louisiana  would  give  the 
United  States.  So  a  treaty  was  promptly 
arranged,  to  be  ratified  by  the  respective  na- 
tions, by  which  Louisiana  was  ceded  to  the 
United  States  for  about  $15,000,000. 

The  territory  thus  ceded  was  that  re- 
leased to  France  by  Spain,  with  its  northern 
and  western  boundaries  indefinite  and  very 
elastic.  The  boundary  between  Louisiana 
and  Spanish  Mexico  was  not  defined  until 
1819,  when  the  river  Sabine  was  so  desig- 
nated. 

The  treaty  stipulated  that  the  inhabitants 
of  Louisiana  "  should  be  incorporated  into 

24 


LOUISIANA 

the  Union  of  the  United  States,  and  ad- 
mitted, as  soon  as  possible,  according  to  the 
principles  of  the  Federal  Constitution,  to 
the  enjoyment  of  all  the  rights,  advantages, 
and  immunities  of  citizens  of  the  United 
States.  And  in  the  mean  time  they  should 
be  maintained  and  protected  in  the  free  en- 
joyment of  their  liberty,  property,  and  the 
religion  which  they  professed."  The  ac- 
quisition carried  the  United  States  to  the 
Rocky  Mountains,  or,  if  Oregon  was  in- 
cluded, as  has  been  claimed,  to  the  Pacific 
Ocean ;  and  the  region  contained  a  popula- 
tion of  eighty  thousand,  of  which  half  were 
slaves.  The  larger  part  of  this  population 
was,  of  course,  in  or  about  New  Orleans. 

Napoleon  soon  ratified  the  treaty  on  the 
part  of  France,  and  Jefferson,  with  a  natural 
satisfaction,  at  once  communicated  the  facts 
to  Congress  and  laid  the  treaty  before  it  for 
ratification  and  the  necessary  legislation. 
He  hinted  at  the  possible  necessity  of  a  con- 
stitutional amendment,  but  he  advised  his 
friends  to  say  very  little  on  that  point. 

The  annexation  naturally  met  with  a 
bitter  opposition  from  the  Federalists,  and 
some  of  Jefferson's  own  party  doubted  its 
wisdom ;  but  the  mass  of  the  people,  partic- 


TERRITORIAL  ACQUISITIONS 

ularly  those  of  the  south  and  west,  heartily 
approved  it.  The  opposition  said  that  "the 
acquiring  territory  with  money  is  mean  and 
despicable."  It  held  that  Louisiana  was  a 
wilderness  of  little  value,  while  the  popula- 
tion was  slightingly  spoken  of  as  a  "  Gallo- 
Hispano-Indian  omnium  gatherum  of  savages 
and  adventurers,  whose  pure  morals  are  ex- 
pected to  sustain  and  glorify  our  republic." 
The  opposition  could  not  believe  that  such  a 
class  of  population  was  suited  to  a  republi- 
can form  of  government,  and  it  did  not  seem 
to  think  of  or  believe  in  immigration  of  our 
people.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  neither  party 
appreciated  the  real  value  of  the  purchase. 
Again,  the  Federalists  opposed  the  annexa- 
tion because  the  addition  of  so  much  new 
western  and  southern  territory  would  give 
such  an  undue  predominance  to  southern 
ideas  and  institutions  as  to  threaten  the 
destruction  of  the  political  influence  of  the 
northern  and  eastern  States.  Besides  the 
insinuation  that  Jefferson  simply  took  this 
method  of  helping  France  with  a  little  ready 
money  when  it  was  badly  needed  by  her,  the 
Federalists  denied  the  constitutionality  of  the 
measure,  although  they  as  a  party,  especially 
when  in  power,  so  construed  the  Constitution 

26 


LOUISIANA 

as  to  give  the  government  the  largest  implied 
powers.  The  anti-Federalists,  or,  more  prop- 
erly at  this  time,  the  Democratic-Republi- 
can party,  believed  in  limiting  those  powers ; 
but,  when  it  got  control  of  the  government 
and  felt  its  responsibilities,  it  also  became 
more  general  in  its  policy,  and  favoured  the 
annexation.  So,  in  spite  of  all  opposition, 
especially  since  the  Federalists  were  weak  in 
numbers  in  the  Senate,  the  treaty  was 
ratified,  the  legislation  to  carry  it  into  effect 
passed,  and  Louisiana  became  a  part  of  the 
United  States. 

The  Federalists  prophesied  all  manner  of 
evil  from  this  result.  Fisher  Ames  writes  to 
Christopher  Gore  in  October,  1803:  "The 
Mississippi  was  a  boundary  somewhat  like 
Governor  Bowdoin's  whimsical  all-surround- 
ing orb  —  we  were  confined  within  some  lim- 
its. Now,  by  adding  our  unmeasured  world 
beyond  that  river,  we  rush  like  a  comet  into 
infinite  space.  In  our  wild  career  we  may 
jostle  some  other  world  out  of  its  orbit ;  but 
we  shall,  in  every  event,  quench  the  light  of 
our  own."  But  the  dangers  foretold  were 
not  realised.  Free  States,  as  well  as  slave 
States,  grew  out  of  Louisiana.  New  Eng- 
land more  than  the  south  occupied  the 
27 


TERRITORIAL  ACQUISITIONS 

vacant  western  lands,  and  the  wealth  and 
prosperity  of  the  great  West  has  come  to  us 
by  reason  of  this  extension  of  our  boundaries 
beyond  the  Mississippi. 

It  has  been  remarked  that  Jefferson  and 
some  of  his  party  leaders  doubted  the  con- 
stitutional right  of  annexation.  An  amend- 
ment to  the  Constitution  authorising  it  was 
prepared,  but  was  never  submitted  to  the 
States.  The  measure  was  acquiesced  in  as 
lying  within  the  treaty  powers  of  the  Presi- 
dent and  Senate,  or  being  within  the  general 
powers  of  government,  or  perhaps  as  within 
the  power  of  admitting  new  States  to  the 
Union.  The  party  to  which  Jefferson  be- 
longed was  the  party  of  a  strict  construction 
of  the  Constitution.  It  believed  in  limiting 
the  powers  of  the  general  government  as 
much  as  possible  and  still  allow  the  govern- 
ment to  exist.  Yet  at  its  first  entrance  into 
control  it  carried  the  sovereignty  of  the  na- 
tional government  as  far  as  the  Federalists 
had  ever  done.  u  The  acquisition  of  Louisi- 
ana was  an  immense  help  in  bringing  about 
just  that  which  "  Jefferson  and  his  party  had 
opposed,  "  the  subordination  of  the  State  to 
the  Nation."  That  step  was  ratified  by  Con- 
gress, and  stands  as  a  precedent  to-day. 

28 


LOUISIANA 

It  was  thus  a  matter  of  the  gravest  im- 
portance to  us,  irrespective  of  the  material 
wealth  it  brought  to  the  country,  in  its  effect 
upon  the  question  of  the  constitutional  power 
of  the  United  States  to  annex  contiguous 
territory  without  the  consent  of  the  people 
of  that  territory.  It  is  difficult  to  see,  if  our 
government  has  the  power  thus  to  annex 
contiguous  territory,  why  it  may  not  for  the 
same  reasons  annex  territory  anywhere.  The 
remoteness  of  a  proposed  acquisition,  the 
character  of  its  people,  are  questions  which 
affect  the  desirability  of  annexation,  and  not 
the  power,  if  the  Louisiana  precedent  be 
accepted. 

Since  the  treaty  with  France  provided  that 
the  inhabitants  of  Louisiana  should  be  "  in- 
corporated into  the  Union,"  or,  in  other 
words,  that  States  should  be  formed  out  of 
it  as  soon  as  possible,  according  to  the  pro- 
visions of  the  Federal  Constitution,  this  new 
acquisition,  like  the  territories  hitherto  be- 
longing to  the  Union,  was  held  under  a  trust, 
as  it  were,  to  form  States  when  proper.  Per- 
haps the  Louisiana  case  goes  no  further  as  a 
precedent  than  that,  under  a  construction  of 
the  Constitution  adopted  by  the  President 
and  Congress  and  acquiesced  in  by  the  people 
29 


TERRITORIAL  ACQUISITIONS 

(and,  as  we  shall  see,  subsequently  followed), 
the  United  States  has  the  power  to  annex 
territory  out  of  which  States  are  to  be 
formed.  It  fairly  may  be  said  that  at  that 
time  the  power  of  the  United  States  under 
the  Constitution  to  hold  colonies  or  depend- 
encies which  were  not  intended  to  be  made 
into  States,  and  ultimately  to  have  a  voice 
and  a  vote  in  our  legislative  assemblies  and 
in  the  election  of  our  national  officers,  was 
not  considered.  That  may  be  said  to  have 
been  left  an  open  question. 


CHAPTER   IV. 
FLORIDA. 

FLORIDA  presented  some  of  the  same 
aspects  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  United 
States  as  Louisiana.  It  was  a  province 
which  had  always  seemed  to  furnish  a  base 
of  operations  against  the  peace  and  quietness 
of  the  people  in  the  Southern  States  as  well 
as  a  constant  temptation  to  invasion.  Spain 
was  a  weak  power,  and  neither  preserved 
order  in  Florida  nor  could  protect  it  when 
citizens  of  the  United  States  were  the  aggres- 
sors. Discovered  by  Spain  in  1513  and  its 
first  town  built  in  1565,  she  established  only 
a  few  settlements  within  it ;  and  the  greater 
part  of  its  territory  still  remained  occupied 
only  by  Indians  until  1763,  when  Spain 
ceded  it  to  England  in  exchange  for  Cuba 
which  England  had  taken  in  the  war  just 
ended.  It  was  assumed  to  extend  from  the 
Atlantic  to  the  Mississippi,  with  the  northern 
boundary  unsettled.  England  divided  it  into 
East  and  West  Florida,  with  the  Appalachi- 
cola  as  the  dividing  line.  When  she  made 
peace  with  the  United  States,  in  1783,  she 
also  made  a  treaty  with  Spain  by  which 

3' 


TERRITORIAL  ACQUISITIONS 

Florida  was  returned  to  its  former  owner. 
Then  a  good  many  settlers  from  the  United 
States,  who  had  gone  there  through  English 
inducements  while  it  was  under  English 
government,  returned  to  this  country.  The 
northern  boundary  still  remained  unsettled 
until  it  was  fixed  by  the  treaty  already  men- 
tioned, in  1795,  at  a  line  running  along  the 
thirty-first  parallel  from  the  Mississippi  to 
the  Chattahoochee,  then  down  that  river  to 
Flint  River,  and  then  across  to  the  head 
waters  of  St.  Mary's  River.  Very  slowly 
and  reluctantly  Spain  withdrew  her  forces 
south  of  that  line. 

The  United  States  began  her  serious  en- 
croachments upon  Florida  in  1810,  when, 
taking  advantage  of  an  insurrection  of  West 
Florida  against  Spanish  authority,  the  fed- 
eral government  took  possession  of  some  of 
the  principal  posts  west  of  the  Perdido  River, 
and  soon  after  annexed  the  part  on  the  east 
bank  of  the  Mississippi  to  the  territory  of 
Orleans  (the  southern  part  of  the  Louisiana 
Purchase).  The  people  of  West  Florida 
had  proposed,  when  they  revolted  from  Spain, 
to  become  annexed  to  the  United  States ;  but 
our  government  seemed  to  prefer  the  course 
taken,  leaving  the  title  to  negotiation.  In 


FLORIDA 

spite  of  the  treaty  of  1795  fixing  the  northern 
boundary,  the  people  on  the  United  States 
side  seemed  to  feel  that  they  had  a  claim  to 
the  country  west  of  the  Perdido,  relying  upon 
the  claim  of  France  to  that  district  when  she 
held  Louisiana.  Above  all,  the  action  taken 
gave  us  land  on  both  sides  of  the  Mississippi. 
That  may  have  been  sufficient  for  the  admin- 
istration. The  next  year  Congress  author- 
ised the  acquisition  of  the  entire  province, 
if  Spain  would  consent  to  it,  or  any  other 
power  tried  to  obtain  it. 

Very  soon  another  slice  of  this  land  occu- 
pied by  the  United  States  was  added  to  the 
Mississippi  Territory,  and  so  matters  re- 
mained as  far  as  the  federal  government  was 
concerned  until  1814.  This  occupation  of 
West  Florida  gave  rise  to  earnest  debates  in 
Congress ;  but  the  country  was  too  much 
occupied  with  commercial  difficulties  and 
strained  relations  with  England  and  France 
to  pay  the  attention  to  the  matter  which  it 
deserved.  It  was  another  step  in  the  de- 
velopment of  the  power  of  the  national 
government. 

In  1814,  to  prevent  the  British,  then  at 
war  with  the  United  States,  from  using 
Pensacola  as  a  base  of  supplies,  and  having 

33 


TERRITORIAL  ACQUISITIONS 

Spanish  help  in  proposed  operations  against 
us  in  the  South,  Andrew  Jackson,  then  a 
general  in  our  army,  marched  against  that 
city,  and,  defeating  the  British  and  Spanish 
defenders,  took  possession  of  it.  A  couple 
of  days  later,  when  the  British  were  found 
to  have  left  that  section  of  the  country,  he 
restored  the  city  to  the  Spanish. 

While  Florida  was  a  Spanish  province, 
there  were  several  cases  of  aggression  on  the 
part  of  our  people  in  the  South;  but  in 
1818  our  government  itself  ordered  an  in- 
vasion, and  retained  possession  for  a  time  on 
the  plea  of  restoring  order.  The  state  of 
affairs  in  the  province  was  such  as  to  invite 
trouble.  Spain,  upon  regaining  possession  in 
1783,  never  fully  reoccupied  it.  Only  a  few 
small  military  posts  here  and  there  nominally 
held  in  check  a  population  made  up  in  a 
great  measure  of  outlaws,  smugglers,  and 
buccaneers,  while  the  fierce  and  warlike 
Seminoles  prevented  the  colonisation  of 
many  of  the  best  sections.  The  American 
occupation,  in  1818,  came  about  from  the 
efforts  of  our  government  to  disperse  a  band 
of  filibusters,  calling  themselves  patriots,  who 
had  landed  on  an  island  near  the  boundary 
of  Georgia  with  the  proclaimed  intention  of 

34 


FLORIDA 

invading  East  Florida  and  annexing  it  to 
the  United  States.  Practically,  their  presence 
there  hindered  the  execution  of  our  revenue 
laws.  Our  troops  took  possession  of  the 
country  to  hold,  as  our  government  informed 
Spain,  until  that  power  was  able  to  maintain 
order. 

Then  difficulties  with  the  Seminoles  broke 
out.  These  Indians,  living  on  both  sides  of 
the  line  between  Florida  and  Georgia,  had 
committed  acts  which  led  Georgia  to  com- 
plain to  the  government  at  Washington. 
General  Jackson  took  the  field  against  them, 
and  pursued  them  into  Florida.  He  himself 
had  no  doubt  of  the  complicity  of  the  Span- 
ish in  these  Indian  outrages  and  of  their  fur- 
nishing supplies  to  the  red  men,  and  so  he 
proceeded  to  take  two  or  three  Spanish  forts 
in  Florida  and  to  occupy  Pensacola  again. 
This  time  he  appointed  a  military  governor, 
abolished  Spanish  revenue  laws,  and,  in  gen- 
eral, proceeded  in  a  vigourous  if  high-handed 
course.  Although  these  proceedings  caused 
great  excitement  and  considerable  censure, 
Congress  passed  a  vote  of  thanks  to  Jackson  ; 
while  the  administration,  after  much  hesita- 
tion, expressed  its  approbation  of  his  acts. 
The  people  made  an  idol  of  him ;  and  this 

35 


TERRITORIAL  ACQUISITIONS 

work  in  Florida,  with  his  great  victory  over 
the  British  at  New  Orleans,  fixed  his  popu- 
larity sufficiently  secure  to  make  him  Presi- 
dent ten  years  or  so  later. 

Pensacola  and  our  other  captures  in  Flor- 
ida were  subsequently  returned  to  Spain ;  and 
then,  in  1819,  Spain  agreed  to  cede  the  whole 
province  to  us  for  five  million  dollars.  The 
province  had  then  only  a  very  small  popula- 
tion, with  the  whites  clustered  round  a  few 
settlements.  The  greater  part  was  still 
roamed  over  by  the  native  Indians. 

Before  Spain  would  make  this  treaty,  how- 
ever, she  insisted  upon  defining  the  boundary 
between  the  Louisiana  Purchase  and  Mexico, 
the  latter  then  in  her  possession.  The  United 
States  had  made  claims  so  far  as  the  Rio 
Grande,  while  Spain  allowed  only  a  narrow 
strip  west  of  the  Mississippi.  When  the  Sa- 
bine  River  was  agreed  upon  as  the  boundary, 
she  ceded  Florida,  as  desired.  In  thus  gain- 
ing Florida,  we  relinquished  any  claim  we  had 
upon  what  was  afterwards  the  republic  of 
Texas. 

Spain  had  her  hands  full  at  the  time  with 
the  continuous  revolutions  in  her  South  Amer- 
ican provinces  and  in  Mexico,  and  perhaps 
she  made  this  cession  under  a  species  of  du- 

36 


FLORIDA 

ress.  The  acts  of  the  United  States  officials, 
particularly  those  of  General  Jackson,  which 
had  been  hailed  with  delight  in  the  States, 
had  not  been  such  as  to  give  Spain  a  feeling 
of  security  in  the  possession  of  Florida ;  and 
she  may  have  regarded  the  money  as  worth 
more  to  her,  under  the  circumstances,  than 
this  doubtful  possession.  It  was  1821  before 
she  ratified  the  treaty  and  withdrew  her  forces. 
General  Jackson  already  had  been  appointed 
governor  of  the  new  territory ;  and  with  his 
characteristic  vigour  and  disregard  of  conse- 
quences he,  in  his  own  way,  rather  accele- 
rated the  departure  of  the  Spanish  officials. 

The  Florida  question  was  thus  settled.  If 
the  slave-owners  of  Southern  Georgia  and 
Alabama  felt  that  now  a  refuge  for  their  run- 
away property  was  closed,  the  Union  as  a 
whole  could  feel  that  one  source  of  expense 
was  stopped, —  through  its  acquisition  of  a 
country  which  had  been  a  constant  danger  to 
the  South  from  the  old  colonial  days.  If 
Spain  could  not  or  would  not  maintain  order 
there,  our  government  could  and  would. 
This  acquisition  finished  out  the  south-eastern 
portion  of  our  domain,  and  carried  our  coast 
line  unbroken  from  Maine  to  Louisiana. 

Little    question    about    the    constitutional 

37 


TERRITORIAL  ACQUISITIONS 

power  of  our  government  to  make  this  an- 
nexation was  raised.  The  precedent  of 
Louisiana  was  followed,  and  made  stronger 
by  being  followed.  As  in  the  case  of  Loui- 
siana, the  consent  of  the  inhabitants  of  the 
ceded  territory  was  not  asked.  As  in  that 
case,  it  was  an  act  in  which  the  benefit  to  the 
United  States  only  was  considered ;  and  ar- 
rangements were  made  with  sovereign  power, 
not  with  the  people  governed.  The  inhabi- 
tants of  the  new  territory,  as  we  have  seen, 
were  not  a  particularly  desirable  class ;  yet,  as 
in  Louisiana,  there  was  every  expectation 
that  in  time  it  would  develop  to  a  position 
when  it  could  be  properly  admitted  to  the 
Union  as  a  State,  as  eventually  it  was. 

The  annexation  of  Louisiana  and  Florida 
did  away  with  troublesome  neighbours,  pre- 
vented further  certain  irritation  and  perhaps 
war.  Their  acquisition  was  justified  by  the 
circumstances  of  the  times  and  events ;  and, 
however  much  such  additions  to  the  southern 
part  of  the  country  may  have  helped  that  sec- 
tion and  given  its  peculiar  institution  added 
strength,  they  were  also  of  great  benefit  to 
the  country  at  large.  Whatever  motives 
were  by  the  opposition  attributed  to  the  ad- 
ministrations which  secured  these  additions, 

38 


FLORIDA 

certainly  such  sectional  aggrandisement  was 
not  alleged  by  the  people  favouring  them  as 
the  motive ;  and  there  is  no  evidence  to  war- 
rant the  belief  that  it  actuated  those  most 
concerned.  That  the  annexation  of  Louisi- 
ana and  Florida  dried  up  the  sources  of 
chronic  difficulties  is  reason  enough  for  the 
treaties  with  France  and  Spain.  As  to  the 
particular  benefit  to  the  South  of  the  acquisi- 
tion of  Florida,  outside  of  its  addition  as  one 
more  southern  State,  the  most  that  can  be 
said  is  that  it  helped  the  slave  States  by  shut- 
ting up  what  had  hitherto  been  an  open  door 
of  escape  for  the  slave.  And  as  to  Louisiana, 
if  its  acquisition  did  add  to  the  slave-owning 
States,  it  also  opened  the  Mississippi  to  the 
North,  and  in  so  doing  made  the  free  States  of 
the  Northwest  the  richer  and  more  powerful. 
We  come  now  to  annexation,  which  hardly 
can  stand  careful  scrutiny  as  to  motives  and 
methods,  however  beneficial  the  results  may 
have  been.  Before,  however,  treating  Texas 
and  the  Mexican  cession,  it  will  be  more 
convenient  to  consider  the  Oregon  country. 


39 


CHAPTER   V. 
OREGON. 

OREGON  is  the  one  addition  to  our  domain 
which  has  come  to  us  by  discovery  and  oc- 
cupation, but  even  then  a  treaty  with  Great 
Britain  was  required  to  make  the  title  secure 
without  possible  bloodshed.  Oregon  also 
reminds  us  that  we  are  a  young  country  in 
the  New  World,  for  it  is  since  the  United 
States  came  into  existence  that  white  men 
explored  the  great  river  flowing  through  that 
territory  and  settled  on  Oregon  soil. 

It  was  the  fur  trade  which  first  led  us  to 
the  northwest,  and  it  was  the  success  of  the 
French  and  the  English  in  the  north  which 
stimulated  the  early  interest  in  Oregon.  As 
Irving  has  written :  "  While  the  fiery  and 
magnificent  Spaniard,  inflamed  with  the  mania 
for  gold,  has  extended  his  discoveries  and 
conquests  over  those  brilliant  countries 
scorched  by  the  ardent  sun  of  the  tropics, 
the  ardent  and  buoyant  Frenchman  and  the 
cool  and  calculating  Briton  have  pursued  the 
less  splendid  but  no  less  lucrative  traffic  in 
furs  amidst  the  hyperborean  regions  of  the 
Canadas,  until  they  have  advanced  even 
40 


OREGON 

within  the  arctic  circle."  The  spirit  which 
led  u  the  cool  and  calculating  Briton "  into 
the  north  also  caused  him  to  cast  his  eyes 
toward  the  shores  of  the  Pacific,  while 
already  his  American  cousin  was  trading  for 
otter  skins  along  that  coast  and  carrying 
them  to  China  for  a  market.  With  the 
Americans  in  their  trading  vessels  on  the 
Pacific  coast,  and  the  English  working  in 
that  direction  through  the  interior  from  the 
East,  a  struggle  for  the  possession  of  this 
territory  lying  between  Russian  Alaska  and 
Spanish  California  became  inevitable.  It 
was  the  trapper  and  the  fur-trader  who  were 
to  be  the  pioneers.  While  we  would  not 
undervalue  the  courage  and  resolution  of  the 
intrepid  explorers,  we  should  also  give  due 
meed  of  praise  to  the  trappers  and  fur-traders 
who  first  endured  the  hardships  and  dangers 
of  frontier  life  in  Oregon.  It  was  their 
work  which  carried  the  country's  western 
boundary  to  the  Pacific.  They  it  was  who 
led  the  way  for  the  settlers  who  came  after 
them.  It  was  a  repetition  within  the  life  of 
our  nation  of  to-day  of  the  trials  and  strug- 
gles and  final  success  of  the  colonists  of 
Massachusetts  and  Virginia  on  the  Atlantic 
coast. 

41 


TERRITORIAL  ACQUISITIONS 

In  1792  Captain  Gray  of  the  ship 
"  Columbia,"  of  Boston,  entered  the  Colum- 
bia River,  and  gave  it  the  name  of  his  vessel. 
He  commanded  one  of  those  traders  engaged 
in  the  fur  trade  along  the  northwest  coast 
from  California  to  the  high  northern  lati- 
tudes. The  coast  of  Oregon  had  been  seen 
by  many  navigators  before,  and  a  large  river 
was  known  to  be  in  that  vicinity ;  but  he 
seems  to  have  been  the  first  white  man  who 
ever  sailed  into  that  river  and  made  any 
exploration  of  it.  He  did  not  go  very  far 
up;  but,  as  he  sailed  away,  he  met  Van- 
couver, and,  telling  him  of  his  discovery,  left 
his  charts  with  him.  Thereupon  Vancouver 
explored  the  river  for  a  long  distance  from 
its  mouth. 

Captain  Gray's  report  of  his  exploration 
upon  his  return  home  was  so  favourable  that 
a  desire  to  secure  the  country  for  the  Union 
at  once  sprang  up.  Early  in  1803  President 
Jefferson  sent  a  confidential  message  to 
Congress,  asking  for  an  appropriation  for 
an  exploring  expedition  to  the  West.  The 
appropriation  was  granted,  and  the  President 
designated  as  leader  of  the  proposed  expedi- 
tion Captain  Meriwether  Lewis.  With 
him,  as  associate,  was  Lieutenant  William 

42 


OREGON 

Clark,  a  brother  of  that  George  Rogers 
Clark  who  had  so  wonderfully  conquered 
the  British  in  the  Northwestern  Territory 
in  the  Revolution. 

Jefferson  had  for  many  years  shown  a 
deep  interest  in  a  proper  scientific  and  geo- 
graphical exploration  of  the  great  country 
west  of  the  Alleghanies ;  and  now,  with  the 
possible  acquisition  of  Louisiana,  and  his 
desire  for  a  larger  knowledge  of  Oregon  and 
to  insure  its  possession  by  this  country,  he 
initiated  this  movement  which  resulted  in 
Lewis  and  Clark's  expedition.  By  the  time 
they  were  ready  to  start,  in  1804,  Louisiana 
was  ours,  and  their  route  lay  all  the  way  in 
the  territory  of  the  United  States. 

Lewis  and  Clark  set  out,  in  1804,  from 
the  mouth  of  the  Missouri,  and  sailed  up  the 
river  to  its  sources  in  the  Rocky  Mountains, 
crossed  the  mountains  to  the  left  branch  of 
the  Columbia,  and  followed  down  that  river 
to  its  mouth  where  Captain  Gray  had 
anchored  over  twelve  years  before.  Then 
they  returned  home  the  way  that  they  had 
come.  They  had  passed  through  a  country 
almost  unknown  to  white  men,  had  escaped 
the  dangers  of  Indians,  of  snow  and  ice  and 
the  mountains,  and  the  perils  of  unknown 

43 


TERRITORIAL  ACQUISITIONS 

rivers,  and  had  brought  back  valuable  infor- 
mation, besides  adding  another  link  in  the 
chain  of  our  title  to  Oregon.  They  were 
gone  something  over  two  years,  and  richly 
deserved  the  President's  eulogy  given  in  his 
message  to  Congress  in  1806.  Their  story  is 
full  of  adventure,  and  has  a  charm  of  its  own 
quite  aside  from  the  importance  of  their  work. 
In  1810,  encouraged  by  Jefferson,  John 
Jacob  Astor  formed  the  Pacific  Fur  Com- 
pany, with  the  object  of  making  a  settlement 
on  the  Columbia  and  developing  the  trade 
of  that  region.  The  company  founded 
Astoria,  and  made  a  beginning  of  its  work. 
It  established  a  few  posts  along  the  river, 
and  then  was  swallowed  up  by  the  North- 
west Fur  Company,  its  English  rival  in  the 
field.  The  enterprise  was  not  successful 
from  a  business  point  of  view.  When  the 
War  of  1812  broke  out,  Astoria  and  the 
company's  goods  there  and  at  its  posts  were 
transferred  to  the  English  company,  osten- 
sibly to  prevent  their  capture  and  confiscation 
by  English  troops.  The  evidence  goes  to 
show,  however,  that  Astor's  far-reaching  and 
far-sighted  as  well  as  patriotic  enterprise 
was  ruined  by  an  unfortunate  selection  of 
partners  and  the  lack  of  support  from  our 

44 


OREGON 

government.  Still,  the  settlement  at  Astoria 
and  the  operations  of  the  Pacific  Fur  Com- 
pany were  further  steps  and  important  ones 
in  our  occupation  of  Oregon. 

After  the  War  of  1812,  in  spite  of  a  law 
passed  by  Congress  forbidding  British  fur- 
traders  to  carry  on  their  business  upon  our 
territory,  the  Northwest  Fur  Company  con- 
tinued to  monopolise  the  trade,  holding  as 
it  did  posts  all  along  the  Columbia  and  its 
branches.  But  our  people  had  sufficient  in- 
terest in  the  matter  to  claim  the  whole  of 
the  country  as  far  north  as  the  parallel  of 
54°  40',  the  southern  limit  of  the  Russian 
possessions  in  America.  England,  relying 
upon  her  occupation  and  alleged  discovery, 
also  claimed  the  territory ;  and,  to  settle  the 
matter  temporarily,  an  arrangement  was  made 
in  1818  for  a  joint  occupation  for  the  term 
of  ten  years,  the  people  of  each  nation  being 
thus  authorised  to  trade  within  and  occupy 
it.  This  agreement  was  renewed  in  1827  to 
extend  indefinitely,  provided  that  either  party 
might,  after  1828,  revoke  it  upon  twelve 
months'  notice. 

Any  possible  difficulty  with  Russia,  who 
owned  what  is  now  Alaska  and  who  had  es- 
tablished sundry  trading  posts  in  California, 

45 


TERRITORIAL  ACQUISITIONS 

was  obviated  by  a  treaty  with  her  in  1824 
by  which  she  abandoned  all  claim  to  the  Pa- 
cific coast  south  of  54°  40',  the  southern 
limit  of  Alaska;  while  Spain,  at  the  time 
she  ceded  Florida  to  the  United  States,  also 
released  all  claims  to  the  Pacific  coast  north 
of  42°,  the  northern  boundary  of  California. 
The  arrangement  with  England  did  very 
well  for  a  time;  but  in  1842  the  "  Oregon 
question,"  which  for  twenty  years  "  had  been 
more  or  less  before  the  eyes  and  in  the 
thoughts  of  statesmen  at  home  and  abroad," 
received  public  notice  in  a  President's  mes- 
sage. President  Tyler,  in  his  message  to 
Congress  on  Dec.  5,  1842,  said:  "The 
territory  of  the  United  States,  commonly 
called  the  Oregon  Territory,  lying  on  the  Pa- 
cific Ocean,  north  of  the  forty-second  degree 
of  latitude,  to  a  portion  of  which  Great  Brit- 
ain lays  claim,  begins  to  attract  the  attention 
of  our  fellow-citizens ;  and  the  tide  of  popu- 
lation, which  has  reclaimed  what  was  so 
lately  an  unbroken  wilderness  in  more  con- 
tiguous regions,  is  preparing  to  flow  over 
these  vast  districts  which  stretch  from  the 
Rocky  Mountains  to  the  Pacific  Ocean.  In 
the  advance  of  the  requirement  of  individual 
rights  in  these  lands,  sound  policy  dictates 
46 


OREGON 

that  every  effort  should  be  resorted  to  by  the 
two  governments  to  settle  their  respective 
claims."  The  Senate  thereupon  passed  a 
bill,  by  a  majority  of  one,  for  taking  possession 
of  the  whole  of  the  disputed  territory,  the  title 
of  the  United  States  to  which  it  was  declared 
to  be  certain,  and  would  not  be  abandoned. 
The  House,  however,  refused  to  concur. 
The  question  then  became  a  political  one, 
with  all,  the  inflammatory  appeals  to  national 
jealousy,  pride,  and  interest  which  naturally 
might  be  expected  under  such  circumstances. 
When  the  Presidential  election  came  round 
in  1844,  it  was  one  of  the  issues  upon  which 
Polk  was  elected.  The  cry  was, "  Fifty-four- 
forty  or  fight."  If  the  Texas  question  was 
the  main  issue,  the  Oregon  question  added  to 
the  excitement  of  the  times.  Congressmen 
made  fiery  speeches,  and  the  country  seemed 
on  the  verge  of  another  struggle  with  Great 
Britain,  when  wiser  counsels  prevailed  ;  and  in 
1846  a  convention  was  made  by  the  two 
countries,  which  settled  the  difficulty.  Mon- 
roe and  Tyler  had  suggested  a  dividing  line ; 
and  Polk,  although  elected  with  the  under- 
standing that  he  should  insist  upon  54°  40', 
made  an  offer  of  compromise ;  but  it  was  not 
until  matters  had  reached  an  acute  stage  that 

47 


TERRITORIAL  ACQUISITIONS 

negotiations  finally  were  concluded.  It  is 
barely  possible  that  the  Mexican  difficulty 
rather  urged  Polk  to  a  settlement  with  Eng- 
land ;  and  it  is  to  the  credit  of  Daniel  Web- 
ster that,  although  at  that  time  he  held  no 
office  in  the  executive  department  of  the  gov- 
ernment, he  still  exerted  his  influence  in  pri- 
vate channels  abroad  to  bring  about  a  peaceful 
solution  of  the  problem. 

The  convention  made  the  parallel  of  49° 
the  northern  boundary  of  Oregon,  while 
Vancouver's  Island  was  given  to  England. 
Free  navigation  of  Fuca's  Straits  and  the 
Columbia  River  was  given  to  both  nations, 
and  rights  of  actual  possession  of  land  on 
both  sides  of  the  boundary  line  were  to  be 
respected  by  both.  It  was  a  natural  boun- 
dary line,  since  it  continued  our  northern 
boundary  line  directly  across  to  the  Pacific. 

Thus  this  bone  of  contention  between 
England  and  the  United  States  was  re- 
moved,—  a  contention  which  was  aggra- 
vated by  the  efforts  of  a  British  company  to 
monopolise  a  trade  which  the  people  of  the 
United  States  felt  should  be  theirs  by  right 
of  prior  occupation  as  well  as  discovery,, 
and  possibly  under  our  construction  of  the 
Louisiana  Purchase. 

48 


OREGON 

This  Oregon  Territory  is  now  occupied 
by  the  States  of  Washington,  Oregon,  Idaho, 
and  parts  of  Montana  and  Wyoming.  The 
Pacific  coast  line  soon  was  extended  south 
by  the  acquisition  of  California.  So  within 
fifty  years  our  domain  had  grown  from  a 
relatively  small  district,  confined  within  the 
Atlantic  and  the  Mississippi,  to  a  country 
extending  from  ocean  to  ocean.  The  steps 
which  led  to  the  acquisition  of  Texas  and 
the  Mexican  territory  already  were  being 
taken  when  Oregon  became  unquestionably 
our  own. 


49 


CHAPTER   VI. 
TEXAS. 

THE  annexation  of  Texas  and  the  ac- 
quisition of  Mexican  territory  adjoining  it, 
including  California,  must  be  considered 
together;  for  they  are  really  parts  of  one 
transaction.  The  acquisition  of  all  this  new 
territory  was  caused,  not  by  extra-territorial 
difficulties,  as  in  the  case  of  Louisiana  and 
Florida,  but  by  a  desire  on  the  part  of  a 
portion  of  the  country  to  increase  its  area. 
Although  all  our  additions  of  territory  thus 
far,  except  the  Oregon  Territory,  had  been  at 
the  South,  at  least  the  populous  portion  of 
them,  and  in  the  opinion  of  many  public 
men  gave  that  section  so  great  a  prepond- 
erance of  influence  as  to  endanger  the  Union, 
the  demand  for  still  further  additions  came 
from  that  same  section.  Slavery,  and  a 
desire  to  keep  southern  influence  predomi- 
nant in  the  government,  were  primary  causes 
of  the  great  additions  of  territory  in  1845 
and  1848.  As  the  free  North  grew  in 
strength,  the  South  began  to  fear  that,  if  it 
became  strong  enough  to  control  the  govern- 
ment, it  would  restrict  and  finally  abolish 

5° 


TEXAS 

slavery  altogether.  The  Missouri  Compro- 
mise left  only  a  small  space  for  slave  States ; 
while  north  of  36°  20'  was  an  immense 
territory  rapidly  filling  up  with  a  population 
from  New  England  and  the  North,  out  of 
which  States  would  rise,  free  by  the  inherited 
principles  of  the  settlers,  and  by  law  if  the 
Missouri  Compromise  were  respected.  In 
other  words,  it  took  no  prophet's  eye  to  see 
a  time  rapidly  approaching  when  the  slave 
States  would  be  in  a  decided  minority.  And 
just  at  this  time  a  spirit  of  reform  was 
rampant.  It  was  the  age  of  isms  in  New 
England.  Prison  reform,  reforms  in  crimi- 
nal law,  and  poor  laws  were  agitated  and 
undertaken  ;  while  aggressively  advocated  was 
the  abolition  of  slavery.  A  period  of  intel- 
lectual growth  and  moral  growth  was  begin- 
ning. With  the  denunciation  of  slavery  per 
se,  there  was  also  a  crusade  begun  against 
slavery  at  the  South  on  the  part  of  the  more 
radical  reformers.  Societies  for  the  abolition 
of  slavery  were  found  at  the  South  previous 
to  1835;  but,  after  that  time,  that  section 
ranged  itself  against  them,  and  the  abolition- 
ists were  driven  to  the  North.  That  party, 
small  but  earnest,  would  give  no  rest  to 
agitation,  and  preferred  a  divided  country  to 

51 


TERRITORIAL  ACQUISITIONS 

allowing  slavery  protected  under  their  flag. 
With  this  feeling  springing  up  against 
slavery, —  a  moral  feeling  all  the  stronger 
from  rising  among  a  people  whose  very  begin- 
ning was  a  moral  struggle, —  it  is  not  strange 
if  those  at  the  South  who  believed  slavery 
necessary  to  its  prosperity,  felt  that  sooner 
or  later  would  come  the  demand  for  freedom 
for  the  slaves,  with  all  its  serious  conse- 
quences to  that  section  of  the  country. 
And,  further,  the  South  was  in  danger  of 
losing  the  predominance  which  it  had  held 
always  in  the  affairs  of  the  Union ;  and  that, 
especially  to  a  State  like  South  Carolina,  was 
a  situation  not  to  be  borne.  To  preserve 
the  balance  between  slave  and  free  States, 
more  territory  south  of  36°  20'  must  be 
gained.  Such  land  was  at  hand  in  Texas. 
Texas  was  part  of  that  vast  region  in 
North  America  claimed  by  Spain  by  virtue 
of  discovery  and  occupation,  and  was  consid- 
ered a  part  of  Mexico.  Spanish  occupation 
of  Texas  was  very  limited  at  any  time ;  for  it 
was  in  Mexico  as  it  is  to-day,  and  to  the 
north-west  of  Texas,  that  Spain  made  any  vis- 
ible progress.  Before  an  English  settler  had 
arrived  in  America,  little  armies  under  Span- 
ish leaders  had  penetrated  into  what  is  now 

5* 


TEXAS 

New  Mexico  and  Colorado.  So  early  as 
1600  the  Spanish  Jesuits  were  exploring  and 
establishing  their  missions  in  the  more  north- 
erly and  central  part  of  the  region  now  in- 
cluded in  New  Mexico  and  Arizona.  Con- 
siderable success  followed  their  efforts  to 
Christianise  the  natives,  a  rapid  emigration  set 
in,  and  that  district  became  quite  flourishing. 
It  was  the  reports  of  mineral  wealth  which 
drew  these  early  Spanish  adventurers  to  the 
wilderness.  Spain  always  was  seeking  a  new 
El  Dorado,  and  her  early  expeditions  to  the 
North  were  to  find  another  Mexico.  With 
the  soldier  and  the  priest  went  the  gold-hunter 
and  the  adventurer.  But  the  Spaniard  soon 
became  a  taskmaster.  He  reduced  the  Ind- 
ians, those  whom  he  had  converted  as  well 
as  others  when  he  could,  to  a  slavery  too 
cruel  to  be  borne.  At  last,  about  1680,  the 
natives  broke  into  open  revolt,  and  swept  the 
Spanish  from  the  country.  Spain  did  not  re- 
gain possession  until  eighteen  years  afterward. 
About  that  time  the  Jesuits  explored  and 
planted  missions  in  the  country  south  of  the 
Gila  River.  They  Christianised  the  natives 
and  reported  the  great  mineral  wealth  there;* 
and  a  large  emigration  from  the  South  set  in, 
so  that  a  century  and  a  quarter  ago  that  dis- 

53 


TERRITORIAL  ACQUISITIONS 

trict  was  a  thriving  Spanish  province.  But, 
as  usual,  the  Spanish  enslaved  the  Indians ; 
and,  as  had  happened  earlier,  north  of  them, 
the  slaves  revolted,  and  killed  or  drove  their 
masters  from  the  country.  Then  civilisation 
in  that  section  disappeared,  and  in  1846  only  a 
few  Mexicans  remained  in  the  old  town  of 
Tucson  and  along  the  Mesilla  Valley. 

There  was  less  of  Spanish  occupation  of 
Texas  than  of  the  other  Spanish  possessions 
north  of  Mexico.  The  French  unwittingly 
made  a  beginning  there  when  La  Salle  landed 
at  Matagorda  Bay  instead  of  the  mouth  of 
the  Mississippi,  as  he  wished  ;  and,  after  some 
other  ineffectual  attempts  to  establish  French 
settlements,  a  French  colony  from  the  Red 
River  located  in  Texas,  and  were  allowed  by 
the  Spanish  to  stay  there.  But  Spain  claimed 
the  province  as  part  of  Mexico,  and  practi- 
cally made  good  her  claim.  When  the  United 
States  bought  Louisiana,  only  the  moderation 
of  Jefferson  and  the  prudence  of  the  military 
commanders  prevented  a  collision  of  armed 
troops  over  the  matter  of  the  boundary  be- 
tween Mexico  and  this  country.  In  1819, 
however,  as  we  have  seen,  the  United  States 
withdrew  all  claims  which  she  had  to  Texas 
as  a  part  of  Louisiana,  by  the  treaty  fixing  the 
Sabine  River  as  the  boundary. 

5+ 


TEXAS 

Soon  after  the  acquisition  of  Louisiana 
there  sprang  up  an  illicit  trade  with  Mexico, 
through  Texas,  which  was  so  lucrative  that  a 
large  number  of  adventurers  engaged  in  it. 
When  the  difficulties  between  Spain  and  her 
American  colonies  reached  a  point  where  re- 
bellions became  frequent,  these  adventurers, 
assisted  by  friends  within  the  United  States, 
made  numerous  attempts  to  free  Texas  and 
Mexico  from  Spanish  rule ;  but  Texan  inde- 
pendence did  not  come  from  these  efforts. 
The  feeling  which  inspired  these  filibustering 
expeditions  was  doubtless  one  factor  in  causing 
the  dissatisfaction  displayed  in  the  South  and 
Southwest  over  the  fixing  of  the  eastern 
boundary  of  Texas  in  1819.  Henry  Clay 
and  other  prominent  men  who  approved  that 
feature  of  the  treaty  expressed  only  a  popular 
sentiment  in  their  sections  of  the  country. 


55 


CHAPTER   VII. 
TEXAS  (CONCLUDED). 

MEXICO  in  the  mean  time  had  been  fighting 
for  independence,  and  in  1821  began  a  revo- 
lution which  ended  in  her  freedom  from 
Spain.  During  these  struggles  Texas  lost 
her  population,  which  had  been  of  a  floating 
character,  so  that  by  1822  she  was  almost 
wholly  deserted.  In  the  next  year,  however, 
Stephen  F.  Austin  received  from  the  new 
nation  of  Mexico  the  confirmation  of  a  grant 
of  lands  in  Texas  made  by  Spain  in  1820  to 
his  father,  Moses  Austin.  Already  Stephen 
had  conducted  a  considerable  number  of  col- 
onists to  a  site  near  where  the  city  of  Austin 
now  is,  and  more  soon  followed.  The  father 
was  a  native  of  Connecticut,  but  a  resident 
of  Missouri  when  he  received  his  grant  and 
began  the  enterprise.  It  was  naturally  the 
principles  of  Missouri  and  of  the  South  which 
governed  the  early  settlers.  It  is  hardly  fair 
to  call  them  merely  adventurers  because  they 
practically  carried  slavery  with  them,  or  to 
confuse  them  with  their  predecessors  in  the 
contraband  trade  which  flourished  there  before 
them.  Their  sympathy  was  with  slavery, 

5* 


TEXAS 

and  probably  with  them  were  many  doubtful 
characters ;  but  there  is  little  in  their  early 
history  which  shows  them  other  than  a  set  of 
men  trying  to  better  themselves  in  a  new 
country.  Later  there  came  among  them 
those  whose  object  may  have  been  simply  to 
add  to  the  power  of  the  South  and  strengthen 
its  institution  of  slavery  by  annexing  the  dis- 
trict to  the  United  States.  The  South,  in 
truth,  favoured  the  colonisation  of  Texas, 
and  there  is  good  evidence  of  a  scheme  to 
colonise  it  and  annex  it  to  this  country ;  but 
such  a  scheme  was  necessarily  very  general 
in  its  nature, —  rather  a  strong  desire  than  a 
well-defined  plan.  We  can  hardly  believe 
that  the  settlement  of  the  territory  depended 
entirely  upon  the  so-called  conspiracy  to 
colonise  and  annex  it  as  an  additional  slave 
State.  Yet,  whatever  part  the  slaveholding 
interest  may  have  had  in  its  settlement,  there 
is  no  doubt  that  very  soon  after  it  began  to 
grow  there  was  a  sufficiently  definite  purpose 
at  the  South  to  free  it  from  Mexican  author- 
ity, and  then,  if  possible,  to  annex  it  to  the 
United  States.  The  South  would  not  will- 
ingly allow  this  territory  to  become  free  from 
slavery,  as  it  would  if  it  remained  Mexican, 
or  should  come  under  English  protection 

57 


TERRITORIAL  ACQUISITIONS 

or  dominion,  as  at  one  time  was  thought 
possible. 

When  the  Mexican  constitution  was 
adopted,  in  1824,  Texas  was  united  with 
Coahuila,  hitherto  a  separate  province  and 
one  wholly  Mexican,  and  a  Mexican  was 
placed  as  commandant  over  the  department. 
The  injustice  displayed  by  this  commandant 
created  difficulties;  but  the  adoption  of  a 
more  liberal  policy  on  the  part  of  Mexico 
smoothed  out  the  trouble  for  a  few  years, 
and  Texas  prospered. 

Mexico,  however,  as  we  remember,  was 
in  a  chronic  state  of  revolution  by  that  time ; 
and  in  1830  her  government,  then  in  the 
hands  of  a  dictator,  forbade  any  people  from 
the  United  States  entering  Texas  as  colonists, 
and  suspended  all  colony  contracts  which 
might  interfere  with  the  prohibition.  From 
this  time  forward  Mexican  jealousy  against 
emigrants  from  the  United  States  became 
every  month  more  manifest.  Moreover, 
reckless  adventurers  united  with  the  Mexican 
government,  and  went  farther  than  it  did  in 
acts  of  oppression  and  outrage  upon  the 
colonists. 

One  cause  of  this  jealousy  is  apparent 
enough.  Texas  was  almost  wholly  Ameri- 

58 


TEXAS 

can  in  population,  and  hardly  could  escape 
the  prejudice  of  Mexican  authorities.  Then, 
too,  many  of  the  people  of  the  United  States 
felt,  and  expressed  the  feeling,  that  our  gov- 
ernment was  all  wrong  in  agreeing  to  the 
Sabine  as  the  boundary  with  Mexico;  and 
that  we  ought  to  have  kept  the  whole  of 
Texas,  as  it  rightly,  so  they  said,  went  with 
Louisiana.  In  fact,  the  United  States  tried 
twice  in  vain  to  buy  Texas  from  Mexico, 
once  under  John  Quincy  Adams  and  again 
under  Jackson.  However  unreasonable  the 
views  above  quoted  may  have  been,  they  had 
their  weight  at  the  South,  especially  since 
Texas  was  filling  up  with  people  going  from 
our  country,  leaving  friends  and  families  be- 
hind, and  also  since  Texas  within  our  bounds 
would  be  added  slave  territory.  Mexico  had 
abolished  slavery,  and  this  meant  that  Texas 
would  be  a  free  country  should  it  remain 
under  her  sovereignty.  Mexico  knew  these 
facts.  She  knew  that  the  citizens  of  Texas 
were  aliens  to  Spanish  or  Mexican  blood, 
and  she  must  have  felt  that  the  bond  which 
held  that  State  to  her  was  weakening  every 
day.  So  in  defence  she  took  a  step  which, 
however  ill-advised  and  unjust  it  may  seem 
to  us  now,  seemed  wise  to  her  then. 

59 


TERRITORIAL  ACQUISITIONS 

By  1833,  the  situation  having  become  un- 
bearable, the  American  settlers,  who  now 
numbered  20,000,  held  a  convention,  and 
determined  to  separate  from  Coahuila.  A 
State  constitution  was  constructed,  and  an 
address  to  the  Mexican  government  prepared 
requesting  admission  to  the  republic  as  a 
separate  State,  and  this  at  a  time  when 
Mexico  herself,  or  the  party  in  power  there, 
was  making  the  country  a  consolidated  re- 
public rather  than  a  federation  of  States. 
About  this  time  the  Mexicans  in  Coahuila 
and  Texas  quarrelled,  and  each  set  up  a 
different  revolutionary  government ;  but  the 
Americans  had  no  part  in  this  movement. 
Austin  went  to  Mexico  as  the  agent  of 
Texas,  with  the  constitution  and  address, 
but  could  get  no  definite  satisfaction.  Santa 
Anna,  who  was  then  at  the  head  of  the 
government  and  wanted  no  separate  States 
under  him,  simply  played  with  Austin,  keep- 
ing him  in  Mexico  by  promises  of  attention 
and  of  allowing  the  separate  State  govern- 
ment desired  until  he  himself  could  get  ready 
to  march  to  Texas  at  the  head  of  an  army. 
Austin  did  succeed  in  getting  the  prohibition 
of  immigration  from  the  United  States  re- 
moved, and  the  granting  of  some  other  favour- 

60 


TEXAS 

able  measures ;  but  that  was  all.  At  length 
he  returned  to  Texas  with  the  belief  that 
only  by  force  could  anything  like  indepen- 
dence be  gained  for  it,  and  that  war  was  at 
hand. 

In  1835,  upon  the  report  of  the  approach 
of  Mexican  troops,  the  State  legislature, 
which  had  been  guilty  of  gross  frauds,  was 
broken  up  and  the  country  left  without  a 
government.  The  people  were  thus  obliged 
either  to  submit  to  Santa  Anna,  in  effect 
a  dictator  who  already  had  deceived  them, 
or  form  a  government  of  their  own.  Being 
at  least  American  born,  they  did  not  hesitate. 
Committees  of  Safety  were  formed,  and  then 
a  provisional  government ;  and,  after  a  few 
skirmishes  and  battles  with  the  Mexican 
troops,  the  latter  were  driven  from  the 
country.  That  winter  a  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence was  issued;  and  on  March  17, 
1836,  a  convention  of  delegates  adopted  a 
constitution  and  elected  officers.  When 
Santa  Anna  heard  of  the  defeat  of  the  troops 
sent  the  year  before,  he  himself  set  out  for 
Texas  at  the  head  of  an  army  of  7,500  men. 
The  treacherous  massacre  at  Goliad  and  the 
slaughter  at  the  Alamo  committed  by  him 
and  his  troops  created  a  panic  for  a  time ; 

61 


TERRITORIAL  ACQUISITIONS 

but  General  Houston,  the  Texan  Com- 
mander-in-chief, drew  the  Mexican  leader 
after  him  by  a  series  of  retreats  until  he 
reached  San  Jacinto.  There  Santa  Anna's 
forces  became  divided,  and  Houston  fell 
upon  him,  utterly  routed  his  army,  and  took 
him  prisoner.  This  ended  the  war,  although 
neither  then  nor  thereafter  did  Mexico  ac- 
knowledge the  independence  of  Texas. 
That  new  republic  proposed  annexation  to 
the  United  States,  but  the  latter  was  not 
then  ready  for  it.  Yet  the  sympathy  of  the 
American  people  was  with  the  Texans  in 
their  struggle.  The  bloody  deeds  at  Alamo 
and  Goliad  furnished  ghastly  incentives  for 
such  a  feeling,  and  it  had  been  shown  prac- 
tically by  the  considerable  body  of  troops 
raised  in  the  States  in  their  aid.  With  all 
this  sympathy,  however,  there  was  a  convic- 
tion, especially  at  the  North,  that  the  South 
had  a  selfish  interest  in  the  matter. 

The  independence  of  Texas  was  recog- 
nised by  the  United  States  in  1837,  while 
Mexico  protested  against  the  actions  of  its 
people.  She  continued  to  maintain  a  hostile 
attitude  toward  her  revolted  State,  and  sought 
to  incite  Indian  forays ;  but  she  never  sent 
another  soldier  against  it  except  on  one  or 

62 


TEXAS 

two  marauding  expeditions.  In  1840  Eng- 
land, France  and  Belgium  also  recognised 
the  independence  of  Texas,  and  the  new 
republic  began  to  grow  rapidly.  In  1843 
England  remonstrated  against  Mexico's  con- 
duct toward  it ;  and,  as  a  result,  commission- 
ers for  an  armistice  were  appointed.  While 
negotiations  were  pending  President  Tyler 
made  propositions  for  annexation  to  the 
United  States.  Texas  took  a  little  time  to 
consider,  but  finally  approved  the  project ;  and 
a  treaty  of  annexation  was  made.  Anxious 
as  Tyler  was  to  put  this  through,  he  could  not 
carry  the  Senate  with  him ;  and  the  treaty 
was  rejected  June  8,  1844.  This  treaty 
irritated  Mexico,  and  she  broke  off  her 
negotiations,  and  threatened  a  renewal  of 
hostilities.  It  displeased  England  and  France, 
who  wanted  to  see  Texas  under  an  English 
or  joint  protectorate,  without  slavery  and  free 
from  the  influence  of  the  United  States; 
while  its  rejection  humiliated  Texas.  But 
Tyler's  time  came  only  a  little  later. 
Meanwhile  Texas  found  herself  burdened 
with  debt ;  but  her  population  was  increas- 
ing, and  by  1844  her  revenues  began  to 
increase,  so  that  she  seemed  to  be  on  the 
road  to  prosperity. 


TERRITORIAL  ACQUISITIONS 

That  year  the  United  States  elections  had 
resulted  in  the  choice  of  Polk  for  President 
on  a  platform  favoring  annexation.  Accord- 
ingly, in  the  spring  of  1845  jomt  resolutions 
for  annexation  were  passed  through  Congress 
by  small  majorities,  were  at  once  approved  by 
President  Tyler  just  before  his  term  expired, 
and  in  July  were  ratified  by  a  Texan  conven- 
tion called  for  this  purpose.  The  population 
of  the  new  State  at  this  time  was  about 
150,000. 

Although  nine  years  had  passed  since  San 
Jacinto,  and  although  Mexico  never  since 
had  sent  an  army  against  Texas  to  compel 
submission  to  her,  she  still  refused  to  ac- 
knowledge the  independence  of  her  former 
State.  The  action  of  the  United  States  she 
considered  an  act  of  war  against  her,  and 
her  minister  left  Washington ;  but  actual 
hostilities  between  the  two  countries  did  not 
begin  at  once.  When  they  did  break  out,  it 
was  nominally  for  other  reasons,  as  we  shall 
see. 

The  annexation  of  Texas,  in  the  light  of 
her  history,  can  hardly  be  condemned  per  se. 
It  was  bound  to  come  at  some  time.  Her 
people,  as  has  been  remarked,  were  mostly 
Americans  who  had  come  in  there.  All  their 
64 


TEXAS 

political  ideas  were  American.  They  were 
of  what  we  may  call,  for  the  sake  of  a 
name,  the  Anglo-Saxon  race ;  while  the  Mexi- 
cans were  of  another  stock.  They  could 
have  no  sympathy  with  Mexican  ideas  and 
politics.  It  was  natural  for  them  to  turn 
to  us,  as  it  was  natural  for  us  to  sympathise 
with  them.  Their  only  tie  to  Mexico  was 
political.  Texas  was  everything  she  should 
not  be  to  make  Mexican  sovereignty  suitable 
or  acceptable.  The  objection  to  annexation 
lay  in  the  time  of  the  act  and  the  surround- 
ing circumstances.  It  meant,  in  all  prob- 
ability and  apparently  designedly,  a  war  with 
Mexico  which  had  been  at  peace  with  us. 
It  was  a  direct  act  of  aggression,  however 
extenuating  the  failure  of  Mexico  to  recon- 
quer the  revolted  district  may  have  been. 
The  object  appeared  to  many  to  be  not  to 
help  a  people  near  of  km  to  us  and  our 
institutions,  but  through  a  war  of  conquest 
to  acquire  territory  to  be  devoted  to  slavery. 
Mexico's  possession  meant  freedom  for  the 
negro,  while  ours  meant  slavery.  As  Henry 
Clay  writes  in  December,  1844, "  The  Whigs 
were  most  anxious  to  avoid  a  foreign  war 
for  the  sake  of  acquiring  a  foreign  territory, 
which,  under  the  circumstances  of  the  ac- 

65 


TERRITORIAL  ACQUISITIONS 

quisition,  could  not  fail  to  produce  domestic 
discord  and  expose  the  character  of  the 
country,  in  the  eyes  of  an  impartial  world, 
to  severe  animadversion." 


CHAPTER  VIII. 
THE  MEXICAN  CESSION. 

ALTHOUGH  the  Mexican  government  an- 
nounced that  it  would  maintain  its  right  to 
Texas  by  force  of  arms,  and  all  attempts  at 
diplomatic  arrangement  failed,  no  outbreak 
of  hostilities  occurred  until  the  next  year. 
It  seems  very  much  as  if  the  United  States 
were  bent  on  war,  and  a  war  of  conquest  at 
that.  She  took  the  quarrel  of  Texas  di- 
rectly upon  her  own  shoulders.  Besides 
committing  an  act  of  war  against  Mexico  by 
annexing  Texas,  she  also  by  so  doing,  in- 
volved herself  in  a  dispute  over  the  boundary 
of  that  State,  and  pushed  her  claims  to  the 
utmost  limit.  Mexico  claimed  the  river 
Nueces  as  the  western  limit,  while  the 
United  States  claimed  the  land  to  the  Rio 
Grande.  By  carrying  the  boundary  to  that 
river,  we  really  annexed  a  large  strip  of  ter- 
ritory on  which  neither  an  American  nor 
Texan  had  made  a  single  settlement,  and 
which  included  a  part  of  the  Mexican  State 
of  New  Mexico.  Texas  grew  in  size  very 
rapidly  from  the  time  she  was  a  part  of 
Mexico  to  the  time  of  her  annexation  to  the 
United  States. 

67 


TERRITORIAL  ACQUISITIONS 

When  Texas  agreed  to  the  annexation, 
u  the  President  was  requested  and  authorised 
to  lose  no  time  in  establishing  a  line  of  fron- 
tier posts  and  occupying  any  exposed  portion 
along  the  western  border  of  the  new  State," 
and  General  Taylor  was  sent  to  Texas  with 
an  army  of  occupation.  He  halted  in  a  posi- 
tion north  of  the  Nueces  River,  and  hoisted 
the  American  flag.  Early  in  1846  he  was 
ordered  to  the  Rio  Grande ;  and,  when  he 
crossed  the  Nueces  to  carry  out  his  orders, 
he  entered  the  disputed  territory.  This  was 
looked  upon  by  Mexico  as  a  still  further  in- 
vasion of  her  land, —  even  if  she  had  given 
up  Texas,  which  she  had  not, —  and  a  force 
of  Mexican  dragoons  attacked  a  small  body 
of  our  men.  This  was  enough  for  President 
Polk  and  the  party  in  power.  We  remem- 
ber that  Jefferson  had  not  been  so  hasty 
forty  years  before.  On  May  n,  1846, 
war  was  declared ;  and  the  unequal  struggle 
began.  Unequal  because  the  Mexican  ar- 
mies, no  matter  how  much  they  might  out- 
number ours,  no  matter  that  they  were 
fighting  for  their  own  country,  in  sight  of 
their  own  homes,  were  always  beaten.  Un- 
equal especially,  because  the  government  be- 
hind them  was  weak,  distracted  by  constant 
68 


THE  MEXICAN  CESSION 

rebellions,  a  mere  shadow.  To  add  to  Mex- 
ico's difficulties,  our  government  practically 
stirred  up  a  revolution  in  Mexican  govern- 
ment, in  the  midst  of  the  war,  by  opening  a 
way  for  Santa  Anna  —  who  had  been  driven 
into  exile  before  the  war  began  —  to  return 
to  Mexico,  and  really  inducing  him  to  do  so. 
It  was  doubtless  calculated  that  Mexico,  em- 
broiled afresh  in  domestic  difficulties,  would 
be  a  still  easier  prey  for  the  United  States, 
and  that  Santa  Anna,  in  return,  would  favour 
the  ultimate  designs  of  this  country.  But  he 
disappointed  these  expectations.  Probably 
he  found  that  a  vigourous  resistance  to  Amer- 
ican aggression  was  the  surest  road  to  popu- 
larity ;  and,  when  he  got  to  Mexico  and 
seized  the  reins  of  power,  our  advance 
was  more  vigourously  contested  than  before. 
Benton,  in  his  "  Thirty  Years'  View,"  thus 
characterises  these  intrigues  :  — 

"  What  must  history  say  of  the  policy  and 
morality  of  such  doings  ?  The  butcher  of 
American  prisoners  at  Goliad,  San  Patricio, 
the  Old  Mission,  and  the  Alamo;  the  de- 
stroyer of  republican  government  at  home; 
the  military  dictator,  aspiring  to  permanent 
supreme  power, —  this  man  to  be  restored  to 
power  by  the  United  States,  for  the  purpose 
69 


TERRITORIAL  ACQUISITIONS 

of  fulfilling  speculations  and  indemnity  cal- 
culations on  which  the  war  was  begun  !  " 

The  United  States  very  early  made  propo- 
sitions of  peace.  Nothing  came  of  them,  so 
far  as  Mexico  was  concerned ;  but  here  a  col- 
lateral question  was  raised,  which  lasted  so 
long  as  the  cause  of  that  war.  A  bill  was 
introduced  into  Congress  to  authorise  the 
President  to  use  three  million  dollars  as  he 
deemed  it  expedient  in  negotiating  a  treaty 
of  peace  with  Mexico.  To  this  an  amend- 
ment was  offered,  known  as  the  Wilmot 
Proviso,  prohibiting  slavery  in  any  territory 
to  be  acquired  under  that  treaty  or  in  any 
way  whatsoever.  The  bill,  with  the  proviso, 
passed  the  House,  but  did  not  reach  the 
Senate  in  time  to  pass  that  session.  It  was 
the  beginning  of  the  end  of  slavery.  That 
proviso  was  notice  that  a  large  and  increas- 
ing number  of  the  people  were  opposed  to  any 
further  extension  of  slavery.  "  It  announced  a 
policy  which  was  afterward  to  be  victorious." 

The  war  went  on  until  General  Scott  en- 
tered the  City  of  Mexico.  That  settled  the 
contest.  The  treaty  of  Guadalupe  Hidalgo, 
concluded  Feb.  2,  1848,  defined  the  terms 
of  peace ;  and  the  war  was  ended.  As  a 
result,  besides  confirming  our  title  to  Texas, 
70 


THE  MEXICAN  CESSION 

Mexico  ceded  to  the  United  States  Califor- 
nia and  all  the  country  between  that  district 
and  Texas  which  we  own  to-day  except  a 
little  strip  ceded  to  us  in  1853.  The  same 
stipulation  in  regard  to  the  people  of  the 
country  ceded  was  incorporated  in  the  treaty, 
as  in  the  case  of  Louisiana,  except  that  the 
provision  was  added  that  Congress  should  be 
the  sole  judge  of  the  propriety  of  the  admis- 
sion of  new  States  formed  from  the  new 
territory.  Practically,  the  United  States 
agreed  to  form  States  from  that  territory  so 
soon  as  Congress  deemed  it  proper  to  do  so. 
The  United  States  paid  Mexico  $15,000,000, 
and  released  her  from  claims  of  American 
citizens  to  an  amount  of  $3,250,000,  and 
also  agreed  to  protect  her  northern  boundary 
from  the  incursions  and  misconduct  of  the 
Indians.  *The  war  cost  us  in  round  num- 
bers $150,000,000,  and,  it  is  said,  25,000 
lives,  counting  the  deaths  which  resulted  in 
every  way  from  it. 

The  glory  of  the  Mexican  War  rests  upon 
the  army  alone,  and  the  common  soldier  is 
entitled  to  the  most  of  it.  The  bravery 
shown  by  him,  the  dogged  courage  and  per- 
sistent effort  and  intelligence,  were  the  same 
as  have  characterised  the  American  soldier 

71 


TERRITORIAL  ACQUISITIONS 

from  the  first,  and  are  still  shown  by  him 
to-day.  His  general  who  led  the  way  to 
Mexico  became  the  next  President ;  while 
the  party  which  was  responsible  for  the  war 
—  which  had  made  the  annexation  of  Texas 
a  party  principle  —  was  utterly  defeated  when 
next  the  people  went  to  the  polls. 

There  seemed  to  be  a  prospect  of  further 
trouble  with  Mexico  in  1853,  but  tne  Gads- 
den  treaty  settled  the  matter  by  annexing  to 
the  United  States  some  30,000  square  miles 
along  the  southern  bank  of  the  Gila  River. 
This  territory  forms  the  southern  part  of 
what  is  now  New  Mexico  and  Arizona. 
The  difficulty  all  arose  over  a  disputed 
boundary.  The  boundary  commissioners  set 
off  the  Mesilla  Valley  as  belonging  to  Mex- 
ico, whereupon  our  governor  of  New  Mex- 
ico objected,  claiming  that  they  were  in 
error,  and  proceeded  to  take  possession  of 
the  disputed  territory  until  the  boundary 
could  be  settled  by  the  United  States  and 
Mexico.  Mexico  protested ;  and,  since 
Santa  Anna  was  at  the  head  of  the  govern- 
ment and  unfriendly  to  us,  matters  looked 
somewhat  stormy.  But  a  settlement  was 
effected  by  which  this  strip  was  ceded  to  the 
United  States,  and  the  latter  released  from 

72 


THE  MEXICAN  CESSION 

the  obligation  to  protect  Mexico's  northern 
boundary  from  the  Indians.  In  return  the 
United  States  paid  Mexico  $10,000,000. 

This  acquisition  from  Mexico  marks  our 
last  acquisition  of  contiguous  territory.  The 
annexation  of  Texas  and  the  land  ceded  to 
us  by  Mexico  contained  nearly  a  million 
square  miles  in  territory,  but  outside  of 
Texas  very  sparsely  inhabited,  very  much 
of  it  almost  unknown.  California  began  to 
grow  with  the  discovery  of  its  gold  mines 
after  its  acquisition  by  us.  For  the  purpose 
for  which  the  war  was  undertaken  the  results 
seem  to  answer;  and  yet,  in  spite  of  any 
material  advantage  gained,  the  Texan  and 
Mexican  business  is  hardly  to  our  credit.  It 
was  very  much  like  the  case  of  a  powerful 
neighbour  taking  a  piece  of  land  he  wanted 
from  a  weaker  neighbour,  and  paying  for  it 
what  he  pleased.  Yet  the  results  even  in 
a  moral  and  political  point  of  view  were  not 
wholly  undesirable.  The  Mexican  War  and 
the  annexation  of  Texas  marked  the  extreme 
power  of  the  slave-holding  interest  at  the 
South,  and  the  exercise  of  that  power  solidi- 
fied the  opposition  North  and  West.  The 
institution  of  slavery,  although  it  seemed  at 
the  time  to  be  reinvigorated,  really  received 

73 


TERRITORIAL  ACQUISITIONS 

its  death-blow  then ;  any  seeming  advance 
which  it  made  then  or  thereafter  was  at  the 
expense  of  a  support  which  it  required  to 
exist.  Texas  was  the  last  slave  State  to  be 
admitted  to  the  Union.  "  What  the  Aboli- 
tionists could  not  do,  the  slaveholders  and 
their  adherents  did  by  opening  the  eyes  of 
the  people  and  showing  them  how  near  they 
were  to  the  brink  of  the  precipice." 

The  same  impulses  which  drove  this  coun- 
try in  its  course  with  Mexico  were  active  for 
some  time  afterward  in  efforts  to  gain 
additional  territory  at  the  South.  These 
efforts  lasted  until  the  Civil  War  ended  sla- 
very ;  but  private  attempts  to  acquire  some 
of  the  West  Indies  or  parts  of  Central 
America,  during  that  time,  ended  in  disaster 
and  failure,  and  official  intrigues  fared  no 
better.  Then  came  the  Civil  War,  as  a 
consequence  of  the  disease  in  our  system 
which  led  to  the  Mexican  War;  and  we 
were  too  busy  in  trying  to  build  up  a  new 
government  or  saving  the  Union  to  think  of 
annexing  foreign  lands. 


74 


CHAPTER  IX. 
ALASKA. 

AFTER  the  Civil  War  we  bought  Alaska. 
Up  to  this  point,  in  the  history  of  our  acquisi- 
tions, we  have  found  that  political  necessities 
or  advantages,  actual  or  alleged,  have  been 
the  reasons  for  annexation.  In  the  case  of 
Alaska  it  was  mainly  financial  or  commer- 
cial reasons.  Alaska  was  a  country  which 
did  not  touch  our  boundaries  at  any  point. 
Although  sparsely  inhabited  except  by  the 
natives,  from  its  geographical  location  and 
its  climate  it  offered  no  inducements  for  a 
large  emigration  of  our  people  or  of  Euro- 
peans. In  other  words,  while  every  other 
addition  to  our  territory  would,  in  the  ordi- 
nary course  of  growth,  become  States,  this 
Alaska  purchase  "offered  little  or  no  pros- 
pect of  ever  becoming  fit  for  admission  to 
the  Union  on  an  equal  footing  with  the 
States."  And  it  is  questionable  whether  the 
recent  discovery  of  gold  will  make  any  mate- 
rial change  in  the  permanent  condition  of 
things  in  that  respect. 

In  annexing  Alaska,  the  United  States  took 
another  step  in  the  direction  of  acquiring  any 

75 


TERRITORIAL  ACQUISITIONS 

territory,  wherever  situated,  the  only  ques- 
tion being  as  to  the  benefit  to  be  derived 
from  the  step.  To  be  sure,  the  Civil  War, 
just  ended,  had  made  the  executive  and 
Congress  high-handed.  It  had  stretched  ex- 
ecutive power  and  the  federal  power  to  an 
extreme  limit.  Its  effect  had  been  to  cen- 
tralise power  in  the  federal  government ;  and, 
with  Louisiana  and  Texas  in  its  memory, 
the  latter  found  little  difficulty  in  assuming  a 
power  to  buy  Alaska.  It  is  needless  to  say 
that  the  consent  of  its  few  civilised  inhabi- 
tants or  its  natives  was  no  more  asked  than 
in  any  previous  case,  except  that  of  Texas, 
where  the  original  proposition  of  annexation 
came  from  that  people.  And  in  this  con- 
nection, with  the  fact  that  the  natural  expec- 
tation was  that  Alaska  should  remain  under 
a  territorial  form  of  government  or  be  gov- 
erned directly  by  the  President  and  Congress, 
it  should  not  be  forgotten  that  a  territorial 
form  of  government  is  practically  the  gov- 
ernment of  a  colony.  The  government 
does  not  rest  upon  the  consent  of  the  gov- 
erned. And,  while  in  all  previous  cases 
such  a  condition  of  affairs  was  to  be  but  a 
temporary  expedient,  and  the  form  of  govern- 
ment adopted  in  most  cases  allowed  enough 
76 


ALASKA 

local  self-government  to  familiarise  all  the 
people  with  it  and  with  the  principles  of  the 
future  State  government,  in  Alaska  it  was 
expected  to  be  permanent.  Whether  this  is 
in  accordance  with  the  spirit  of  our  institu- 
tions or  not  is  not  to  be  discussed  here.  In 
Alaska  the  circumstances,  geographical  or 
otherwise,  of  the  territory,  should  be  consid- 
ered. But  the  question  is  raised,  if,  under 
our  Constitution,  we  may  hold  commu- 
nities, because  of  geographical  or  climatic 
conditions  likely  to  keep  the  number  of  in- 
habitants small,  under  a  sort  of  colonial  gov- 
ernment,—  government  from  Washington 
and  not  from  themselves, —  may  we  not  also 
hold  them  in  this  way  because  of  peculiarities 
or  characteristics  in  the  population  ? 

Alaska  is  our  name  for  the  Russian  pos- 
sessions in  America  ceded  to  us  in  1867. 
Russia's  title  was  that  of  discovery.  Bering, 
in  the  service  of  that  country,  after  he  found 
out  in  1728  that  Asia  and  North  America 
were  not  connected  by  land,  started  in  1741 
on  another  voyage  of  discovery.  On  July 
1 8  of  that  year  "he  sighted  a  rocky  range 
of  coast,  behind  which  towered  lofty  moun- 
tains, their  summits  white  with  perpetual 
snows,"  and  thus  caught  his  first  glimpse 

77 


TERRITORIAL  ACQUISITIONS 

of  what  was  afterward  known  as  Russian 
America.  The  Russians  were  soon  active 
in  exploration.  Search  was  made  for  a 
northeast  passage  to  the  Atlantic,  and  mer- 
cantile adventurers  examined  the  coast  and 
islands.  In  1783  Russian  companies  began 
the  fur  trade,  afterward  participated  in  to 
some  extent  by  Americans.  Russia,  how- 
ever, did  not  penetrate  far  inland.  The 
Hudson's  Bay  Company  were  already  in  the 
field  in  the  interior.  In  1825  a  treaty  fixed 
the  line  between  British  and  Russian  posses- 
sions, while  the  year  before  (1824)  Russia, 
by  treaty  with  the  United  States,  as  stated 
awhile  ago,  fixed  her  southern  limit  at  the 
parallel  of  54°  40'.  She  also  granted  to  our 
people  certain  fishing  privileges ;  but  her  gov- 
ernment so  construed  the  compact  as  to 
exclude  our  vessels  from  just  the  places  to 
which  they  wanted  to  go,  where  the  fishing 
was  known  to  be  the  best. 

It  was  the  desire  of  the  Pacific  Coast  for 
additional  privileges  that  brought  about  the 
treaty  of  1867,  which  gave  us  the  whole 
country.  The  cod-fishing  carried  on  by 
vessels  from  San  Francisco  had  become  by 
that  year  quite  an  industry.  In  1865  one 
of  the  officials  of  Washington  Territory  re- 

78 


ALASKA 

ported  the  abundance  of  cod  and  halibut  in 
this  region  of  Alaska,  and  said  :  "  No  one 
who  knows  these  facts  for  a  moment  doubts 
that,  if  vessels  used  by  the  Bank  fishermen 
that  sail  from  Massachusetts  and  Maine 
were  fitted  out  here  and  were  to  fish  on  the 
various  banks  along  this  coast,  it  would  even 
now  be  a  most  lucrative  business."  The 
legislature  of  that  same  territory,  by  formal 
resolution,  called  the  attention  of  the  general 
government  to  the  great  value  of  the  fisheries 
of  the  Russian  American  coast,  and  peti- 
tioned for  the  adoption  of  such  measures  as 
would  obtain  for  Americans  the  right  to  fish 
in  these  waters.  The  desire  to  obtain  fish- 
ing-grounds in  the  western  waters,  as  well 
as  in  the  eastern,  and  to  gain  them  free 
from  the  entanglements  of  those  in  the  East, 
and  possibly  a  desire  to  have  another  naval 
station  on  the  Pacific,  as  President  Johnson 
in  a  message  to  Congress  suggested,  must 
have  been  controlling  factors  in  the  mind  of 
the  administration  in  making  the  treaty,  to 
say  nothing  of  the  value  of  the  fur  and  seal 
industry.  The  mineral  wealth  was  of  a  de- 
cidedly uncertain  character. 

Russia  was  quite  willing  to  dispose  of  her 
holdings    in    America.      These   possessions 

79 


TERRITORIAL  ACQUISITIONS 

would  be  hard  to  defend  in  case  of  war,  es- 
pecially with  England ;  and  yet  it  would  be 
at  least  annoying  to  lose  them  through  war. 
They  afforded  no  strength  to  her,  but  were 
rather  a  weakness.  Then  she  wanted  the 
money.  So  the  transfer  was  easily  brought 
about.  It  is  quite  possible  that  our  own  diffi- 
culties with  the  reconstruction  problems  at  the 
time  distracted  the  interest  of  the  public  in  the 
transaction,  for  the  treaty  ceding  the  country 
to  us,  made  March  29, 1867,  occasioned  very 
little  discussion,  and  was  ratified  with  sub- 
stantial equanimity  on  April  9.  When  we 
came  to  pay  over  the  cash  called  for  by  the 
treaty,  there  was  a  little  delay.  It  seemed  to 
many  quite  a  lot  of  money  for  a  purchase  of 
doubtful  value.  Congress  finally  appropri- 
ated the  amount ;  and  it  was  charged,  but  not 
proven,  that  quite  a  corruption  fund  was 
necessary  to  effect  this.  It  is  true,  however, 
that  a  very  respectable  sum  was  used  in 
writing  up  the  country  in  favourable  terms. 
We  paid  $7, 250,000  for  it,  and  acquired 
about  580,000  square  miles  of  territory,  in- 
habited by  some  60,000  people,  mostly 
Esquimaux, —  a  native  population  which,  like 
that  of  our  Indians,  is  diminishing  in  its 
contact  with  civilization.  The  treaty  pro- 

80 


ALASKA 

vided  that  such  of  the  civilised  inhabitants 
as  remained  in  Alaska  were  to  have  all  the 
rights  of  citizens  of  the  United  States. 

With  this  acquisition  the  United  States 
has,  up  to  this  time,  remained  content  so  far 
as  any  territory  on  or  adjacent  to  this  conti- 
nent is  concerned.  The  power  of  our  gov- 
ernment to  annex  foreign  territory  seems  to 
be  pretty  well  established  by  precedent ;  but, 
with  the  exception  of  Texas, —  which,  how- 
ever, had  a  population  in  which  the  American 
element  was  largely  predominant, —  all  our 
acquisitions,  up  to  the  time  of  and  including 
Alaska,  were  of  sparsely  settled  countries. 
Louisiana  was  no  exception ;  for  nearly  all 
its  population  was  clustered  round  New  Or- 
leans, leaving  an  immense  space  inhabited 
almost  wholly  by  Indians.  Outside  of 
Alaska  the  acquisitions  have  opened  outlets 
for  immigration  from  the  older  States  and 
from  abroad;  and  the  new  territories  have 
become  American  in  thought  and  institu- 
tions because  the  pioneers  in  all  these  new 
countries  were  largely  Americans.  "  They 
have  been  a  leaven  in  the  European  immi- 
gration which  followed.  The  two  elements, 
acting  together,  have  built  up  communities 
capable  of  taking  a  place  among  the  self- 
governing  States." 

Si 


TERRITORIAL  ACQUISITIONS 

Whether  Alaska  be  considered  an  excep- 
tion, from  its  peculiar  location  and  from  the 
circumstances  which  seemed  to  make  its 
acquisition  desirable,  or  whether  it  be  con- 
sidered as  an  established  precedent,  the  re- 
cent steps  in  the  enlargement  of  our  territory 
are  certainly  of  a  different  character  from 
any  which  have  gone  before.  These  acqui- 
sitions of  to-day  show  that,  admitting  our 
constitutional  power  to  acquire  territory,  we 
professedly  are  guided  now  by  different  reasons 
from  those  in  the  old  days,  when  our  country 
was  younger. 


CHAPTER  X. 
HAWAII. 

THIRTY-ONE  years  elapsed  after  the  pur- 
chase of  Alaska  before  we  entered  upon  a 
new  career  of  territorial  expansion ;  and  we 
began  by  annexing  the  Hawaiian  Islands. 
In  doing  this,  we  took  a  long  step  forward, 
admitting  that  we  can  find  authority  for  so 
doing  in  the  earlier  precedents.  Since  it 
marks  something  of  a  departure  from  our 
course  of  action  up  to  this  point,  a  some- 
what more  extended  account  of  the  causes 
which  resulted  in  this  annexation  seems  de- 
sirable. Whereas  all  the  former  acquisitions 
had  been  of  territory  which  seemed  suitable 
for  emigration  of  our  people  or  presented 
commercial  advantages,  Hawaii  offers  little 
field  for  emigration,  for  in  1890  only  4,695 
persons  owned  the  land,  and  more  than  half 
the  soil  had  passed  into  European  or  Ameri- 
can hands ;  and  it  would  seem  that  most,  if 
not  all,  the  commercial  benefits  might  have 
been  obtained  by  a  close  alliance  or  protecto- 
rate. To  be  sure,  political  reasons  prompted 
the  acquisition  of  Louisiana  and  Florida,  and 
indeed,  of  Texas  and  the  land  gained  from 

83 


TERRITORIAL  ACQUISITIONS 

Mexico ;  but  still  the  land  gained  was  open, 
and  suitable  for  emigration.  In  the  case  of 
Hawaii  this  fact  is  not  present ;  and  political 
reasons  alone  governed  the  action  taken. 
In  fact,  the  annexation  was  justified  on  naval 
grounds  or  to  protect  the  American  interests, 
already  paramount  in  the  islands. 

The  annexation  was  not  accomplished 
without  opposition,  and  in  the  end  was 
helped,  if  not  carried  through,  by  supposed 
necessities  arising  out  of  the  situation  in 
which  we  found  ourselves  in  the  early  part 
of  our  war  with  Spain  in  1898.  It  was 
really  the  pressure  of  a  small  but  energetic 
minority  of  American  residents  and  sympa- 
thisers in  Hawaii,  rather  than  the  wish  of 
the  United  States,  that  inaugurated  and  main- 
tained the  movement  which  led  to  annexa- 
tion. 

The  Hawaiian  Islands  are  a  country  two 
thousand  miles  away  from  our  coast,  and 
had  in  1897  a  population  of  109,020,  of 
which  only  5,336  were  Americans  or  British, 
and  39,504  native  or  half  Hawaiians,  who 
held  at  least  a  nominal  share  in  the  govern- 
ment. Portuguese,  Germans,  Japanese  and 
Chinese  made  up  the  rest  of  the  mixed 
population, —  the  Japanese  and  Chinese,  to 

84 


HAWAII 

the  number  of  46,023,  having  no  part    in 
the  government  actual  or  nominal. 

Loving  political  freedom  as  we  do,  and 
with  our  own  inborn  energy,  somehow  we 
have  a  feeling  of  compassion,  mingled  with 
a  tinge  of  impatience,  as  we  read  the  history 
of  these  islands  since  Captain  Cook  dis- 
covered them  in  1778,  three  years  after  we 
had  begun  the  fight  for  our  own  indepen- 
dence. The  people  are  a  race  redeemed  from 
barbarism.  Mr.  Schouler  speaks  of  the 
native  Hawaiian  as  "timid  to  resist  the 
encroachments  of  a  more  powerful  race, 
docile  without  strong  traditions  of  his  own, 
frail,  but  well-intentioned  in  morals " ;  and 
another  refers  to  him  as  possessing,  to  an 
unusual  degree,  a  capacity  for  fine  and  ardent 
enthusiasm  for  noble  ends.  The  gentle 
Hawaiians  show  the  distinctive  Christian 
traits,  "  not  always  predominant  among  their 
more  civilised  teachers,  of  simple  faith, 
meekness,  self-sacrificing  hospitality,  and 
forgiveness  of  their  enemies  by  whom  they 
have  suffered."  More  than  half  of  them 
can  read  and  write, —  a  showing  which  should 
particularly  commend  them  to  us,  especially 
since  this  moral  and  intellectual  growth  was 
planted  and  fostered  by  American  mission- 


TERRITORIAL  ACQUISITIONS 

aries.  And  we  should  not  forget  that  it  was 
under  native  rulers  that  this  uplifting  began 
and  was  continued.  We  must  feel  a  sym- 
pathy for  them  as  we  see  how  their  own 
government  came  more  and  more  under  the 
influence  and  control  of  foreign  residents, 
chiefly  Americans,  until  the  native  Hawaiians 
were  relegated  to  a  very  subordinate  place  in 
their  own  country.  As  the  Indian  here  is 
disappearing  before  the  civilisation  of  his 
conquerors,  so  the  Hawaiian  is  fading  away 
under  the  protection  of  the  aliens  he  ad- 
mitted to  his  home. 

When  Captain  Cook  was  there,  the  islands 
were  ruled  by  separate  chiefs  independent  of 
each  other;  but  one  of  them  by  his  superior 
ability  subdued  all  the  islands  except  two, 
which  yielded  their  allegiance  to  his  suc- 
cessor. The  first  Hawaiian  king,  as  Kame- 
hameha  L,  began  a  dynasty  which  lasted 
until  the  death  of  Kamehameha  V.  in 
1874  without  a  successor.  The  interference 
by  the  French  in  1837  ^  to  a  formal  decla- 
ration of  independence  in  1840  and  the  pro- 
mulgation of  a  constitution  by  Kamehameha 
III.  The  independence  of  the  islands  was 
recognised  in  1844  by  England  and  the 
United  States.  Christianity  had  been  intro- 


HAWAII 

duced  by  Kamehameha  II.;  and  the  disposi- 
tion of  the  islanders  was  such  that  the 
Christian  religion  made  rapid  progress,  and, 
with  occasional  relapses,  it  has  maintained  its 
hold  upon  them.  The  influence  of  the  mis- 
sionary is  seen  all  through  these  earlier  days ; 
and  the  influence  of  his  descendants,  not 
wholly  directed  toward  the  religious  welfare 
of  the  natives,  has  been  almost  equally 
strong. 

Again,  in  1849,  new  complications  with 
the  French  occurred ;  and  hostile  preparations 
were  begun,  which  were  interrupted  only 
upon  the  protests  of  the  English  and  Amer- 
ican representatives.  When  once  again,  in 
1851,  the  French  threatened  hostilities,  the 
king,  Kamehameha  III.,  found  it  advisable 
to  strengthen  his  alliance  with  the  United 
States  ;  and,  acting  upon  the  advice  of  Ameri- 
can missionaries  and  American  residents,  he 
promulgated  a  new  constitution,  admitting 
a  small  number  of  foreigners  to  each  of  the 
two  houses  of  the  legislature.  Annexation 
to  the  United  States  even  then  was  discussed, 
but  afterward  abandoned. 

When  Kamehameha  V.  died,  in  1874, 
without  a  successor,  the  legislature,  chiefly 
through  external  American  influence,  elected 


TERRITORIAL  ACQUISITIONS 

as  king,  Kalakaua,  one  of  the  royal  house, 
over  the  dowager  queen  Emma,  a  daughter  of 
an  English  physician.  In  Kalakaua's  reign, 
in  1876,  a  treaty  of  reciprocity  was  arranged 
with  the  United  States,  which  developed  a 
marvellous  interchange  of  products  on  our 
Pacific  coast.  The  broadening  of  commerce 
arising  from  this  act  carried  to  Hawaii  a 
large  "  amount  of  American  invested  capital, 
together  with  a  fair  colony  of  sojourners 
more  or  less  constant "  from  this  country. 

Kalakaua's  course  as  king  was  hardly  on 
a  par  with  that  of  his  predecessors ;  and  his 
dissipation  and  his  government  produced  a 
revolution  in  1887,  which  secured  a  consti- 
tution so  liberal  in  its  treatment  of  the  white 
residents  as  to  be,  to  use  Mr.  Schouler's 
words,  "  unparalleled  in  the  dealings  of  civi- 
lised nations  with  aliens."  Under  that  con- 
stitution procured  by  the  white  residents, 
foreigners  who  took  the  oath  to  support  the 
Hawaiian  government  were  permitted  to  reg- 
ister as  voters  with  a  distinct  reservation  of 
allegiance  to  their  own  governments.  Under 
it  a  citizen  of  the  United  States  could  remain 
such,  and  still  have  the  right  to  vote  in 
Hawaiian  elections,  while  he  was  a  resident, 
by  simply  swearing  to  support  the  government. 

88 


HAWAII 

It  deprived  the  sovereign  of  his  absolute  veto 
upon  legislation,  and  took  away  from  him 
his  power  under  the  old  constitution  of  ap- 
pointing the  members  of  the  Upper  House. 
Naturally,  actual  power  passed  to  the  foreign 
residents,  if  they  kept  in  accord.  In  prac- 
tice the  successive  kings  had  appointed  white 
men  as  ministers,  nobles,  and  judges,  in  pref- 
erence to  men  of  their  own  race,  while  sons 
of  missionaries  and  the  English-speaking 
residents  in  general  had  always  occupied 
high  places  and  reaped  very  satisfactory  pe- 
cuniary benefits.  With  this  position  already 
gained,  the  new  constitution  made  this  class 
still  more  powerful,  as  it  was  also  the  more 
aggressive. 

Matters  stood  in  this  way  when,  in  1891, 
Kalakaua  died  while  on  a  tour  to  the  United 
States,  where  American  interests  saw  to  it 
that  he  was  entertained  right  royally.  Liliu- 
okalani,  his  sister  and  successor,  was  pro- 
claimed queen ;  and  almost  immediately 
schemes  for  annexation  to  the  United  States 
began  to  be  formed. 

The  foreign  sojourners  —  American  citi- 
zens still,  for  the  most  part  —  became  in- 
tensely anxious,  in  the  interest  of  a  stable 
government  and  of  their  own  pecuniary  con- 

89 


TERRITORIAL  ACQUISITIONS 

cerns  as  well,  that  the  government  of  the 
United  States  should  be  extended  over  the 
islands ;  while  the  white  residents  there, 
the  descendants  of  missionaries  and  of  offi- 
cials, naturally  preferred  a  union  with  a 
strong  government  like  our  own  to  a  possi- 
ble resumption  of  power  by  the  natives. 
They  wanted  above  all  a  stable  government ; 
and  if  their  sympathies  with  the  annexation 
movement  were  not  so  strong,  they  were  not 
bitterly  opposed  to  it. 

The  new  queen,  Liliuokalani,  had  an  even 
stronger  dislike  than  her  predecessor  for  the 
constitution  forced  upon  him  in  1887;  and 
she  was  a  less  pliable  subject  than  he.  Pas- 
sionate and  high-strung  as  she  was,  with  a 
strong  love  for  her  native  subjects  and  loved 
by  them,  with  a  large  native  vote  which,  if 
it  could  all  be  brought  out,  might  swamp  the 
foreign  vote,  there  was  a  danger  that  the 
power  of  the  white  residents  might  become 
less  secure ;  and  the  alien  population  recog- 
nized the  danger.  The  queen  found  herself 
merely  a  figure-head  in  the  government,  a 
situation  she  could  hardly  abide.  Her  dis- 
position was  reactionary,  and  her  sympathies 
entirely  with  her  native  people.  She  had  at 
least  inklings  of  the  design  to  annex  her 
9o 


HAWAII 

whole  kingdom  to  the  country  whose  citi- 
zens within  her  own  dominion  held  a  good 
share  of  the  actual  power.  With  such  a 
woman  (of  little  tact  and  headstrong  in  dis- 
pute) as  queen,  the  annexation  feeling  grew 
stronger,  until  her  own  imprudence  and  folly 
threw  the  key  of  the  situation  into  her  oppo- 
nents' hands. 


CHAPTER  XL 
HAWAII  (CONCLUDED). 

ON  Jan.  14,  1893,  tne  legislature  was 
prorogued,  not  to  meet  again  until  May, 
1894,  having  at  the  last  moment  turned  out 
of  office  a  ministry  favoured  by  the  reformers 
and  the  foreign  element.  The  new  minis- 
try thus  put  in  power,  which  must  remain 
in  power  until  a  new  legislature  should  meet, 
stood  for  nothing  except  personal  and  politi- 
cal success,  so  far  as  we  can  see.  Politics 
in  Hawaii  did  not  seem  to  be  all  that  could 
be  desired.  Charges  of  corruption  were  freely 
made,  and  personal  intrigue  was  apparent  in 
the  doings  of  the  legislature.  The  new  min- 
istry, in  fulfilling  pledges  probably  given  to 
the  combination  in  the  legislature  which  had 
put  them  in  power,  laid  before  the  queen 
two  measures,  offensive  to  our  people,  but 
favoured  by  some  local  interests  there, —  a 
lottery  act  and  an  opium  license  act.  The 
queen,  although  disliking  the  acts,  affixed  her 
signature  to  them  because  she  wanted  some- 
thing from  the  ministry  in  turn.  It  was  un- 
fortunate for  her  that  she  did  so,  for  it  gave 
her  opponents  a  chance  to  take  "the  high 
92 


HAWAII 

moral "  ground  against  her ;  but  we  cannot 
help  feeling  that,  however  strong  their  oppo- 
sition to  these  acts  was,  the  annexationists 
cared  more  for  her  action  in  the  matter  as 
an  argument  against  her  than  for  the  princi- 
ple involved.  Having  signed  the  bills,  the 
queen  brought  forward  her  scheme.  Urged 
by  her  own  people  and  her  own  inclinations, 
but  in  practical  defiance  of  the  whole  for- 
eign element,  with  a  self-reliance  which 
would  have  been  admirable  had  it  not  been 
so  indiscreet,  she  submitted  a  new  constitu- 
tion, which  she  wished  immediately  pro- 
claimed in  place  of  that  of  1887.  It  was 
not  such  an  extremely  reactionary  document. 
It  practically  put  the  supreme  law  back 
where  it  was  before  the  revolution  of  1887, 
but  it  proposed  one  or  two  changes  which 
would  necessarily  be  opposed  by  the  white 
residents.  The  queen  wished  to  take  away 
the  life  tenure  of  the  judiciary,  and,  most 
sweeping  change  of  all,  to  reduce  the  prop- 
erty qualification  for  the  suffrage,  and  pro- 
vide that  only  subjects  should  vote.  We 
can  hardly  blame  her  for  desiring  that  last 
step. 

The  ministry  saw  that  it  would  not  do. 
Although  the  right  of  the  sovereign  to  pro- 

93 


TERRITORIAL  ACQUISITIONS 

claim  a  new  constitution  strictly  followed 
precedent,  the  changes  suggested  would  pro- 
duce a  revolution  in  any  event.  They  struck 
down  the  safeguards  of  the  rich  and  intelli- 
gent foreign  element,  whose  presence  and 
capital  had  made  the  prosperity  of  the  whole 
community.  Even  the  queen  felt  bound  to 
gain  her  ministry's  consent  to  promulgate 
the  document ;  and,  when  she  failed  to  ob- 
tain that,  she  submitted.  "With  heartfelt 
sorrow  and  yet  queenly  self-control"  she 
announced  to  the  Hawaiians  from  her  royal 
balcony  that,  while  she  loved  her  people  and 
would  continue  to  love  them,  she  could  not 
then  give  them  the  constitution  they  wished 
for,  but  would  do  so  some  time.  Even  in  this 
she  yielded  to  her  ministry  after  long  discus- 
sion during  the  rest  of  the  day,  and  aban- 
doned in  full  her  purpose  at  any  time  to 
make  the  wished  for  changes ;  and  on  the 
forenoon  of  the  following  Monday,  January 
1 6,  public  announcement  of  that  fact  was 
made  over  her  own  signature. 

It  would  seem,  therefore,  that  any  need  of 
resistance  to  her  authority  on  account  of  her 
proposed  action,  now  forever  abandoned, 
was  obviated ;  but  the  zealous  annexationists 
seized  upon  the  opportunity  to  effect  their 

94 


HAWAII 

purpose.  The  foreign  residents  assembled 
in  mass  meeting  and  appointed  a  Committee 
of  Safety  with  discretionary  powers.  This 
committee,  on  January  16,  issued  a  procla- 
mation abrogating  the  monarchical  system 
and  establishing  a  provisional  government, 
consisting  of  an  Executive  Council  of  four 
"  to  exist  until  terms  of  union  with  the 
United  States  of  America  have  been  negoti- 
ated and  acted  upon."  The  council  at  once 
assumed  control  of  the  government,  and 
obliged  the  queen  to  retire  to  her  private  res- 
idence ;  and  all  this  was  accomplished  with- 
out bloodshed.  About  the  only  force  visible 
was  a  body  of  marines  landed  from  an  Amer- 
ican war  vessel  in  the  harbour  of  Honolulu. 
It  is  needless  to  say  that  this  provisional 
government  represented  the  foreign,  and 
particularly,  the  American  element  at  Ha- 
waii. Commissioners  of  this  government 
were  hurried  off  to  Washington  to  negotiate 
a  treaty  of  annexation,  and  they  found  there 
an  almost  suspiciously  favourable  reception. 

The  unfortunate  part  which  the  United 
States  played  in  this  revolution  was  the  all  too 
prompt  recognition  of  the  new  government 
by  the  resident  United  States  minister  at 
Honolulu,  and  the  landing  of  American  ma- 

95 


TERRITORIAL  ACQUISITIONS 

rines,  at  his  request,  ostensibly  to  protect 
American  interests,  but  practically  to  compel 
submission  to  the  new  order  of  things. 
Well  may  the  queen  complain  that,  but  for 
the  attitude  of  the  accredited  minister  of  a 
friendly  nation,  her  government  might  have 
continued  to  exist.  It  cannot  be  doubted, 
from  a  review  of  the  facts,  that  it  was  the 
marine  force  from  our  war-ship  which  made 
the  bloodless  revolution  successful. 

A  treaty  of  annexation  was  concluded  by 
President  Harrison's  administration  and,  with 
a  favourable  recommendation,  laid  by  him 
before  the  Senate  on  February  15,  but 
later  was  withdrawn  from  that  body  by 
President  Cleveland  without  action  upon  it 
having  been  taken.  President  Cleveland 
sent  a  commissioner  to  the  Hawaiian  Is- 
lands to  investigate,  and  his  message  to 
Congress,  upon  receiving  the  commissioner's 
report,  shows  his  own  conviction  of  the  in- 
justice to  the  Hawaiians  committed  in  assist- 
ing the  revolution  with  our  troops.  Yet 
political  conditions  here,  the  rancour  of  party 
feeling,  the  appeals  to  a  false  pride,  and, 
above  all,  the  situation  into  which  affairs  at 
Honolulu  had  grown,  made  a  solution  of  the 
problem  difficult.  Secretary  Gresham's  plan, 


HAWAII 

as  outlined  in  his  report,  favouring  a  restora- 
tion of  the  political  conditions  which  existed 
in  Hawaii  previous  to  the  revolution,  so  far 
as  United  States  troops  had  assisted  in  that 
revolution,  was  attended  with  almost  insup- 
erable objections.  All  that  the  President 
could  do  was  to  withdraw  the  protectorate 
over  Hawaii  which  Minister  Stevens  had 
established  on  February  9,  pending  action  by 
Congress  on  the  treaty  of  annexation ;  and 
this  was  done  on  April  14,  1893. 

On  July  4,  1894,  the  provisional  govern- 
ment was  dissolved,  and  a  republic  pro- 
claimed. The  movement  for  annexation 
was  then  more  vigourously  carried  on  than 
before;  and  on  June  16,  1897,  another  treaty 
of  annexation  was  sent  to  the  Senate  by 
President  McKinley.  But  this  was  never 
acted  upon.  After  that  we  became  involved 
in  war  with  Spain,  and,  as  one  result  of 
that,  joint  resolutions  providing  for  the  an- 
nexation of  Hawaii  passed  Congress,  and 
were  approved  by  President  McKinley,  July 
7,  1898. 

The  war  with  Spain,  like  all  other  wars, 
was  attended  by  unexpected  results.  What- 
ever may  have  been  in  the  minds  of  our 
public  men,  certainly  in  the  minds  of  the 

97 


TERRITORIAL  ACQUISITIONS 

people  of  this  country  there  was  no  other 
idea  in  the  early  part  of  1898  than  to  free 
Cuba  from  Spanish  control, —  to  end  the 
bloodshed  and  scandal  of  misrule  at  our  doors. 
When  effecting  that  object  brought  us  into 
war  with  Spain,  and  when,  in  the  course  of 
that  war,  Puerto  Rico  and  Manila  fell  into 
our  hands,  a  new  thought  forced  itself  into 
the  minds  of  many  of  our  people,  a  new 
vision  of  the  future  spread  itself  before  their 
eyes.  No  longer,  with  the  weakness  of 
youth,  would  we  shelter  ourselves  behind  our 
ocean  barriers,  but  with  the  strength  of  a 
young  manhood  we  would  take  up  our 
part  in  redeeming  the  world  from  barbarism. 
With  such  views  developing  in  the  pop- 
ular mind,  it  was  easy  for  the  ardent 
annexationists  of  Hawaii  and  the  United 
States  to  persuade  what  had  hitherto  been 
a  reluctant  people  to  consent  to  a  union 
with  Hawaii,  to  take  advantage  of  our  own 
wrong-doing.  For  it  was  alleged  with  con- 
siderable vigour  that  those  islands  were  a 
needed  station  on  the  route  to  the  far-off 
Philippines,  and  that,  if  we  were  to  hold  sway 
at  Manila,  we  scarcely  could  do  without 
Hawaii.  Looking  at  it  in  this  way,  the  ac- 
quisition of  the  Hawaiian  Islands  is  a  part 

98 


HAWAII 

only  of  a  scheme  of  expansion  upon  which 
we  have  entered,  and  the  supposed  necessity 
of  the  acquisition  may  justify  the  departure 
from  all  our  traditions  which  such  annexa- 
tion involves. 

I  do  not  need  to  enlarge  upon  the  prob- 
lems brought  to  us  by  this  annexation,  diffi- 
cult and  unusual  with  us  as  they  are.  With 
Hawaii  we  indeed  entered  upon  a  new 
career ;  and,  in  addition  to  solving  the  prob- 
lem of  just  and  decent  government  at  home, 
—  by  no  means  yet  finished, —  we  have  taken 
upon  our  shoulders  the  government  of  new 
and  strange  people.  Still,  the  annexation 
having  been  accomplished,  it  behooves  us  to 
meet  the  difficulties  as  wisely  and  as  best  we 
can. 


99 


CHAPTER  XII. 
CONCLUSION. 

I  HAVE  dwelt  at  considerable  length  upon 
this  Hawaiian  annexation,  because,  in  addi- 
tion to  its  being  a  new  departure  in  our 
history,  it  is  so  closely  connected  with  the 
policy  which  we  are  pursuing  in  regard  to 
acquiring  territories  in  the  West  Indies  and 
the  East.  It  is  not  my  purpose  to  enter  into 
any  discussion  of  these  latter  enlargements 
of  the  territory  covered  by  our  flag.  Their 
story  is  fresh  in  our  minds ;  and,  with  Ha- 
waii, they  make  another  chapter  in  our  his- 
tory, quite  different  from  what  has  gone 
before. 

In  every  acquisition,  up  to  those  of  Puerto 
Rico  and  the  Philippines,  it  has  been  our 
own  interest  which  has  been  consulted. 
Now  we  are  entering  upon  a  career  of 
acquisition  for  ostensibly  a  different  set  of 
reasons, —  the  benefit  of  the  people  brought 
under  our  dominion ;  and  Hawaii  was  a 
step  in  aid  of  that  object.  It  is  not  for  me 
in  this  place  to  say  where  we  shall  or  should 
stop,  nor  do  I  wish  to  speak  of  the  advan- 
tages or  disadvantages  to  ourselves  of  such  a 
course. 


CONCLUSION 

The  result  of  this  review  of  our  past 
shows  us,  I  believe,  that  our  country  has 
grown  not  only  in  territory,  but  in  the  power 
of  its  federal  government  to  extend  its  sphere 
and  enlarge  its  boundaries  in  whatever  di- 
rection it  deems  proper.  There  has  been 
hardly  a  year  since  the  acquisition  of  Louisi- 
ana, certainly  not  since  the  Mexican  War, 
when  the  annexation  of  some  island  or 
country  has  not  been  proposed  or  discussed 
by  some  of  our  public  men.  Cuba,  San 
Domingo,  Hayti,  and  countries  in  Central 
America,  all  have  been  considered  in  that 
connection.  It  is  only  in  the  cases  told  of 
in  these  pages  where  public  sentiment  or 
particular  circumstances  have  brought  about 
a  union  with  our  country.  It  has  come  to 
be,  not  a  question  of  the  constitutional  power 
to  acquire  territory,  but  the  desirability  of  its 
acquisition  in  each  particular  case.  It  is  for 
us,  the  people,  to  say  how  far  this  extension 
of  power  shall  go  and  how  far  we  shall  feel 
that  we  have  the  strength,  or  that  it  is  our 
duty,  to  carry  the  benefits  of  our  institutions. 
Others  may  sound  the  note  of  warning  or 
exhort  to  further  efforts :  I  have  tried  only  to 
tell  what  we  have  done  in  the  past,  and  why. 

The  story  of  our  acquisitions  of  territory 


TERRITORIAL  ACQUISITIONS 

is  not  all  creditable  to  us.  It  shows  us  that 
the  type  of  humanity  which  our  institutions 
have  evolved  has  been  ready,  as  have  the 
powers  of  the  Old  World,  in  the  name  of  our 
country  to  wrong  other  people  weaker  than 
ourselves.  This  has  been  partly  through  ig- 
norance of  the  real  facts ;  but  the  past  should 
teach  us  to  be  on  our  guard  to  prevent 
future  actions  by  the  Executive  and  Congress 
which  are  contrary  to  our  professions.  The 
story  of  our  acquisitions  shows  one  thing 
clearly,  that  we  have  acquired  foreign  terri- 
tory whenever  and  wherever  we  have  con- 
sidered it  an  advantage  to  do  so,  and  the 
consent  of  the  people  affected  has  not  been 
asked.  It  is  too  late  to  doubt  the  power 
of  our  government,  under  our  Constitution 
to-day,  to  do  so.  Whether  we  wish  to  limit 
that  power  in  the  future  is  an  entirely  differ- 
ent matter.  If  the  people  wish  to  make 
such  a  limitation,  they  can  do  so.  Our 
great  duty  now  is  to  consider  well  the  acqui- 
sitions we  do  make,  and  to  treat  in  accord- 
ance with  the  ideals  and  principles  which 
have  animated  our  truest  patriots  and  wisest 
statesmen  the  people  who  come  under  our 
flag.  If  these  people  are  not  fitted  to  be 
citizens  of  self-governing  States,  all  the  more 


CONCLUSION    Banoroft 

do  we  hold  their  welfare  and  happiness  and 
development  in  our  hands ;  and  our  duty  to 
them  is  a  trust  we  cannot  abuse  if  we  would 
be  true  to  our  ideals  and  the  hopes  of 
humanity. 


103 


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